Group wants inquiry into Civic site
‘Whiff ... reminds me of Sepp Blatter’s FIFA,’ says member of Reimagine Ottawa
There should be an inquiry into the decision to use part of the Central Experimental Farm for a relocated Civic hospital campus, according to a retired judge, an expert in soccer corruption, a physicist and an engineer.
Add to that list former councillor Clive Doucet, who moderated a news conference on Wednesday at city hall where that unique mix of professionals argued their case for a “tripartite inquiry” headed up by the three levels of government.
It’s been just over a year since the federal government agreed to make the old Sir John Carling Building site available for the Civic hospital’s relocation. A land-use application is going through the municipal approval process.
Retired Superior Court judge Monique Métivier said the hospital site selection must be “just and fair.
“There certainly seem to be big gaps in what has been disclosed to the public,” Métivier said. “I think questions need to be answered and I think an inquiry would do that.”
Declan Hill, a journalist who’s written extensively about corruption in professional soccer, alleged he “detects a slight whiff floating through this decision that reminds me of Sepp Blatter’s FIFA.” Blatter is the former head of the international soccer federation who received a temporary ban from the sport over ethics controversies.
Hill, who briefly managed Doucet’s mayoral campaign in 2010, questioned how politicians managed to take the focus off Tunney’s Pasture as a potential hospital site. This is the year to probe the hospital issue because there’s a provincial election in June and municipal election in October, he said.
“We need this transaction that affects public land, that affects development, that affects our health, to be looked at,” Hill said.
Frank Johnson, an engineer who’s president of Ottawa Instrumentation Ltd., said there needs to be an investigation into how an analysis concluding Tunney’s Pasture was the best site for the Civic hospital was set aside in favour of the Sir John Carling site.
David Rogers, a physicist who’s professor emeritus at Carleton University, called it “an enormous real estate deal,” not just a site selection process for a new hospital.
They are part of a new grassroots group called Reimagine Ottawa that says it’s “interested in freeing the city from developer-funded politics and planning.”
The group fears the land around the hospital building will also be included in large mixed-use development, but the hospital hasn’t indicated it wants to build anything but its health complex on the 21-hectare site.
The hospital site-selection process was embroiled in controversy.
The former federal Conservative government offered land across from the existing Civic campus on Carling Avenue for a new hospital. After the current Liberal government stopped that plan, a study by the National Capital Commission concluded that Tunney’s Pasture would be the best site for the relocated Civic hospital.
The Ottawa Hospital, however, didn’t like the idea of relocating the Civic to Tunney’s Pasture, prompting Mayor Jim Watson to bring together hospital officials and politicians from all three levels of government to find an alternate site.
Now, the rezoning applications are at city hall to pave the way for the new Civic hospital on the eastern chunk of the Experimental Farm, near Dow’s Lake.
Still, there are outstanding concerns about the hospital development, especially about the amount of surface parking.
In a written statement, The Ottawa Hospital said it’s working with the community to address concerns raised in consultations, such as the impact on green space, trees and traffic, along with parking and access issues.
The next open house on Jan. 31 at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park between 7 and 9 p.m. will include an initial design concept for the new campus that takes into account public feedback, the hospital said.
The hospital said the Civic campus does not include the development of private-sector structures, such as condos, but will propose underground parking.