Mega-hospital site an issue with municipal candidates
If the new hospital is built in a field on County Road 42, there must be 24-hour emergency care downtown and senior governments must pay “99.999 per cent” of the cost of roads and other needed infrastructure, says mayoral candidate Matt Marchand.
Twenty-seven of the 50 candidates running for mayor and city council oppose the controversial site of the $2-billion hospital, according to Citizens for an Accountable Megahospital Planning Process, which is expected to appeal rezoning of the site to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.
The question is how many will be elected and how far will they go?
Ward 7 candidate Angelo Marignani says he would introduce a motion to reconsider the city’s share of the $200-million local cost. The city approved paying $108-million and the county approved $92 million, based on population.
“We’re going to have to switch that,” Marignani said. “This benefits (the county). It’s not benefiting us.”
If the county disagrees and revokes its contribution? “Let’s look at some brownfields in the city,” he said.
Would the province still build the hospital, which is supposed to serve the region?
“I can’t say,” he said.
“I would explore all possible ways to have this decision reversed,” Ward 5 candidate Martin Utrosa states in his platform. “If the province can reverse gas plants in Toronto, there must be some way to reverse this,” he said in an interview, calling it one of his top issues.
Ward 8 candidate Giovanni (John) Abati wants a referendum. It’s one of the reasons he’s running. “That’s my big push,” he said. “That’s the question I ask everyone.”
The votes to rezone the site and establish the levies were almost unanimous, despite CAMPP’S determined opposition, said Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj, saying he’s not concerned.
Still, he checked if council can reconsider zoning amendments. It can’t.
If the new council tried to reconsider the levy?
“That would cause a problem, clearly, if the levy was reversed,” said steering committee co-chair Dave Cooke.
Former premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government committed to building the new hospital. But Conservative Doug Ford is premier now.
“With this government,” said Musyj, “we’re going to need to be very strong.” Fearmongering, as Abati says? Ford ended the basic income pilot project before there were any results. He’s vowing to pay down the $15-billion deficit. Everything seems on the table. Three new hospitals and two major hospital renovations were in the province’s 2017 budget. Fourteen other communities are following, planning new or renovated hospitals. They’d all love to move up the list.
There are many real concerns about this site. How will people living in the core get to it? What will it cost to build and maintain the new infrastructure? Will this sprawl hollow out the core? But it’s difficult to argue against it when the city just rezoned 988 acres around the site for residential and commercial development. And the biggest concern is simply getting this hospital, sooner, not later. The credibility of the case for it and the strength of the support for it will determine whether it remains a government priority. The case, at least, is credible. Doctors performed an emergency angioplasty while water rushed into the cardiac catheterization lab at Windsor Regional’s 130-year-old Ouellette Avenue campus during the storm last week.
Ward 2 candidate Fabio Costante, who could win that key race, opposes the new site. But, he asked, “do we want to play that kind of chicken? “You’ve got to look at the greater good,” he said. “If there was a threat of provincial funding being pulled in a turbulent Ford government because of infighting or the county saying if you change the location we’re going to rescind our funding, that all has to be considered. It would be reckless to take a dogmatic position.
“I would love the best of both worlds,” he said, “but sometimes you’ve got to pick.”
It’s difficult to argue that senior governments should pay for the infrastructure for the hospital when the city is planning almost 5,000 new homes there. The hospital and homeowners will at least pay steep new development charges that will pay for 35 per cent of the cost of infrastructure. But 24-hour emergency care downtown is something candidates can argue — though Marchand didn’t in a letter of support to Musyj in 2015. The urgent care centre planned for the former Grace Hospital site on University Avenue or Windsor Regional’s Ouellette campus will be open 16 to 18 hours a day. That’s based on demand, Musyj says. But people downtown want to know it’s there when they need it. And if they need it during the other six to eight hours, you can’t ask them to travel almost to the county. Even if some of these candidates are elected but nothing changes, something will have changed, said Coun. Chris Holt, who also opposes the new site. “Getting the political will to start asking questions, having councillors that are willing and open to those discussions, Windsor will be better off,” he said. “We will have renewed our focus on re-urbanization.”
If the province can reverse gas plants in Toronto, there must be some way to reverse this.