The largest health care capital project in Manitoba's history is on budget, but late.

A 388,000 square foot, $232.9-million Women's Hospital at Health Sciences Centre was supposed to be operating in 2016, but now it's expected to open to patients in the fall of 2019.

Interim president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Real Cloutier told reporters today they have chosen to accept delays to ensure they get a quality product on budget.

"There were unforeseen delays... that added to the time schedule. So we work with the contractor to make sure that we're not going overbudget, that we maintain the budget. And if that means that we have to spent a bit more time to get the project done... then we chose taking a bit more time," said Cloutier.

Some delays included the collapse of shoring on Sherbrook Street and subsequent remediation work in 2012, a fire in 2013 that affected infrastructure shared with the new Women's Hospital, and the insolvency of one of the original electrical subcontractors.