Farmers union voices opposition to new hospital site in Vaudreuil-Soulanges

When you want to build a new hospital that will purportedly house 404 beds, 10 operating rooms and an emergency room that can accommodate 41 stretchers, you require ample and adequate space for its location. There is no question that a planned new hospital that will serve the population of Vaudreuil-Soulanges better is a good thing. And nobody would argue that with a burgeoning popula- tion and challenges related to travel distances and crossings of bridges and borders to access other hospitals, that a new hospital is a critical priority for the region. After all, residents must currently travel to the Hôpital du Suroît in Valleyfield, Lakeshore General Hospital in PointeClaire, Hawkesbury Hospital in Ontario, or even further afield for emergency care. The project to build a new hospital for the VaudreuilSoulanges region was first announced by Quebec in 2010. It should come as no surprise then that the approximately 153,000 residents of the 23 municipalities that make up the Municipalité régionale de comté de Vaudreuil-Soulanges are extremely anxious to see ground broken and construction of the new hospital begin. Since the original announcement for the new hospital, an analysis of regional needs revealed that the initial plans would be inadequate, and we have since learned that the project has doubled in terms of necessary size and scope. The selection of a 2.7-millionsquare-foot property near the junction of Highway 30 and Cité-des-Jeunes Blvd. in Vaudreuil-Dorion was announced in 2016 as the site for the new hospital. However, the intended site was subject to an agreement to expropriate the land at the time. Recently, any obstacles delaying progress in terms of the hospital’s intended location have been cleared. The future location of the new hospital for Vaudreuil-Soulanges is not without controversy. In a statement issued recently, Quebec’s professional farmers union, the Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UPA), says that it deplores the construction of the hospital on the site located along the Cité-desJeunes road. The union also declares that the project forces the destruction of nearly 25 hectares of the most beautiful farmland in Quebec. In addition, the UPA is reminding everyone that agriculture is an economic engine for the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, and that nearly 450 agricultural businesses generate annual revenues of more than $ 125 million. As such, the UPA considers that in the medium term, the construction of a hospital on the coveted site threatens agriculture throughout the region. The union suggests that the government could choose instead to build the hospital in an urbanized area in order to preserve invaluable farmland. UPA president Marcel Groleau stated that “Agricultural zones are a limited, non-renewable resource that are essential to the food security of Quebecers. Unfortunately, many municipal stakeholders continue to view our lands as areas awaiting development. We must stop this irresponsible squandering of our pantry.”