It's time to make a new hospital a reality in Essex
People of the county have spoken, says Gary Mcnamara
When it comes to the urgent need for a new hospital to serve this growing region, the people of Windsor-essex have spoken. Clearly. Consistently. Emphatically.
They have penned letters to the editor, called in to radio talk shows and vigorously advocated on social media for a modern, state-of-the-art hospital. They put out lawn signs telling the province that “We Can't Wait,” that the southwest wants in, that residents here deserve the same quality health care they receive farther down the 401.
And they've expressed their will through their political representatives and their municipal councils. All of them.
County of Essex council has unanimously passed three separate motions related to the pressing need for this transformative project and has affirmed its support for the location on County Road 42. The councils of each of the County's seven local municipalities have likewise passed motions affirming their support for the project, emphasizing the need for a centrally located hospital to serve the residents of this great and growing region.
The council of the City of Windsor recently expressed majority support for this project and the County Road 42 location, which was painstakingly selected by a committee of community leaders back in 2016 over more than 20 other competing sites, following a comprehensive process with significant public engagement and opportunities for discussion and input. That means there is now support for this project from every municipal council in Windsor-essex.
All of these political leaders would not have provided such unwavering support for this generational project if it did not make sense for their diverse and growing communities, from Leamington to Lasalle to Lakeshore. And they certainly wouldn't have done it if their constituents hadn't been telling them in the coffee shops and corner stores of their communities that they supported this hospital plan and wanted to see a shovel in the ground as soon as possible.
Former Unifor national president Ken Lewenza Sr. told city councillors recently he could give them “100 stories of why we need a new hospital.” There are a great many more than that: tens of thousands of them, stories of physicians and nurses making do with ancient equipment in cramped facilities and stories of Windsor and Essex County residents with young children and aging parents receiving less than optimal care as a result of our outdated hospital infrastructure.
Wassim Saad, Windsor Regional Hospital's chief of staff, calls our current facilities “relics of decades past,” and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says they can't help but deliver “100-year-old health care.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed these systemic weaknesses and only heightened the urgency for us to build for the future and come together in support of a project that will transform the delivery of health care in this region for generations to come.
Every resident of Windsor-essex deserves the same quality health care that residents receive in Toronto or London or Ottawa, where there isn't a shortage of private rooms and the wide use of ward rooms with shared bathrooms down the hall.
This project will attract to Windsor-essex the best and brightest in the world of medicine and health care and it will attract more people and more families, fuelling increased residential and commercial growth.
It will generate more than 14,000 jobs over its lifetime, generating employee compensation exceeding $1 billion and taxes in excess of more than $200 million, including more than $68 million for local municipal governments that can be spent improving the everyday lives of Windsor and Essex County residents.
There are competing interests around the cabinet table at Queen's Park and we need to do everything we can to ensure our voices are heard and that there is provincial funding dedicated to taking this project to the next phase, a multi-million-dollar planning process that could take 24 months to complete.
Windsor and Essex County residents have paid through their taxes for hospital projects in other regions and it's long past time that similar investments be made here for the health and well-being of our growing community. We should expect nothing less than a modern, state-of-the-art health care system. The people have spoken and it's time that the province heeded their call.