City didn’t seize hospital land

Re: Council needs to use all tools at its disposal, guest column by Anneke Smit, Aug. 18.

This column requires clarification. Expropriation of private property by a municipality is limited to cases where the property is required for a municipal use, such as the acquisition of Ojibway Shores, or a provincial use, as in the case of the Herb Gray Parkway.

The hospital property on County Road 42 was acquired by a non-municipal body, the Windsor Regional Hospital, and not the City of Windsor. It would be totally impractical for council to now suddenly decide that a community improvement plan (improvement of what?) would justify the city attempting to use expropriation powers to acquire it or substitute property. A separate body, Windsor Regional Hospital, has already reached an agreement to purchase the location, which will serve the healthcare needs of both Windsor and Essex County, which are contributing equally to fund part of the cost of the project. The latter criterion would not be served by a brownfield location, if such even existed. The only function the city has in such matters is rezoning to accommodate a proposed use, provided that all planning criteria are satisfied, which they are in this case.

I also supported the rezoning because denying a legitimate rezoning would have prevented the hospital from proceeding in the health care interests of the public which — in view of the age of the two existing hospitals and other factors such as the availability of provincial funding is very much the right thing to do.

Hilary Payne, Windsor councillor for Ward 9