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“The amount they’re asking for is way, way, way over what is justified … We, as a government, will not pay one dollar more than what was justified.”— Gaétan Barrette, April 1, 2016.

Quebec’s health minister,notorious for his tough talk and his tight grip on hospital finances, was adamant he would not yield to the private consortium suing the government for $330 million.

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Led by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, the consortium claimed it was owed that sum (which it later hiked to $360 million), on top of the $1.3 billion it was to be paid under a contractto build the superhospitalof the McGill University Health Centre. The contract — known as a public-private partnership — was supposed to guarantee that any cost overruns would be shouldered by the private partner and not taxpayers.

Yet less than two years later, on Jan. 8, the government announced it reached an out-of-court settlement with the consortium, agreeing to pay it an extra $108 million. That same day, Quebec declared an even bigger payout, $125 million, to settle a dispute with a different consortium that built the nearly $2-billion CHUM superhospital.