$3M in cash to kick off Civic hospital planning

Provincial funding, on heels of site selection, to pay for preliminary work

With the dust barely settled on the selection of a site, planning for a new Civic hospital is about to begin.

Ottawa-caucus MPPs are set to announce “the next step” in Civic hospital development planning on today, just over a week after the site of the former Sir John Carling building was recommended for the $2-billion super-hospital.

The province is expected to provide $3 million in funding for preliminary planning.

Planning for a new hospital is a multistage process that must be approved at each stage before construction can begin. Early stages of planning include traffic and parking studies, and planning for projected community needs and the facilities required. The entire process can take years. Hospital CEO Dr. Jack Kitts says he wants the new hospital open in 10 years.

The site was approved by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly on Dec. 2, at the end of a wild week

in which The Ottawa Hospital board rejected a National Capital Commission recommendation to put it at Tunney’s Pasture. A coalition of provincial, municipal and federal politicians, as well as hospital officials, pressed for it to be located at the former site of the now-demolished Sir John Carling building, at the eastern edge of the Experimental Farm.

At the time, Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi vowed that planning for the hospital would begin before the end of the year.

Plans for a new Civic hospital have been in the works for years, but have been bogged down in controversy recently. In 2014, the Conservative government offered the hospital 60 acres on the Central Experimental Farm, the hospital’s first choice for a site, but the land transfer was never finalized. Earlier this year, Joly asked the NCC to review 12 possible sites for the hospital. Its recommendation was rejected by the hospital. Sir John Carling was the NCC’s second choice.

With a consensus on the former Sir John Carling site, Monday’s announcement is the first sign that the preliminary work needed to build a hospital will get going quickly.

Ottawa is one of several communities across Ontario competing for limited hospital funding dollars. Windsor is also planning for a new 21st-century hospital, as is Niagara.

There is plenty of work to be done before designing the hospital can be done. NCC CEO Mark Kristmanson said the site, set on two levels at the edge of the Experimental Farm, will lend itself to beautiful and innovative design ideas.

The hospital is expected to launch a $400-million fundraising drive for the new hospital — the biggest in its history.