Mega-hospital opponents gear up for another battle
Residents group still fighting designated site across from Windsor’s airport lands
A group fighting against the $2-billion mega-hospital plan said Thursday its battle continues for a more urban setting for a new acute care hospital as the process enters its next phase.
“The (Health) Ministry and premier’s office have been clear that just by moving into Stage 2 does not mean we are locked into this location,” said Philippa von Ziegenweidt, leader of the residents’ group CAMPP, which is opposed to the site across from Windsor’s airport lands just off County Road 42 and 8th Concession Road.
“This stage is the provincial process to refine their capital planning, so it’s premature to say the location is locked in.”
The provincial government has given local health care and city officials the go-ahead to proceed with Stage 2 of the mega-hospital preparation, which includes site and infrastructure planning.
Part of the process includes a public consultation meeting, scheduled for July 5, that will be hosted by planning consultants. The session will be at Roseland Golf and Curling Club from 5:308 p.m.
The meeting is designed to gather feedback on proposed zoning changes for a 360-hectare area that includes the location of the new acute care hospital.
“We are moving forward,” hospital CEO David Musyj said on Thursday.
“We are approved by the government to move on to the next stage and reaching out to the public is part of that.”
Feedback from residents who attended an initial community information session staged by consultants last September has been incorporated into the latest public presentation next month.
“It’s about site planning, amenities of the whole area and part of it is rezoning,” Musyj said.
The session will include an overview of the mega-hospital planning process to date. Information gathered will be used to help develop the “secondary plan” that will be presented to the city’s planning, heritage and economic development standing committee which will make recommendations to city council.
But von Ziegenweidt remains concerned with how feedback provided by her group at the first session still seems unaddressed, and she wonders about the value of the upcoming meeting.
“What is the process here?” she said. “I have not seen a single outreach yet where there has been real public consultation where people feel comfortable their (feedback) will be used in an objective manner.”
There are plenty of reasons why CAMPP remains resistant to the plan, von Ziegenweidt said, noting the location of the acute care hospital is supposed to be accessible to people with disabilities and people who don’t drive. “And we don’t see that,” she said. Von Ziegenweidt also questions how much the overall cost to Windsor’s taxpayers will be to bring hydro, sewers, roads and other infrastructure to the planned acute care site which is presently vacant farmland.
Any time the group has inquired about added costs for infrastructure to support the site, “nobody answers our questions,” she said. “This is very much a subject that needs to be discussed by taxpayers and all users of the health care system before anything is locked in.”
CAMPP members will again be seeking answers to such questions at the upcoming consultation session, she said.
Musyj said debate on the choice of location will continue “years after we open,” and he remains firmly behind the current location decision for the new acute care hospital.
“The reason we moved ahead is that there has been overwhelming support for this project, which includes location,” he said. “You can never make everybody happy, but I think we came darn close.”
Information presented at the July 5 meeting will later be made available online at www.windsorhospitals.ca. Comments can also be emailed to the consultants hosting the session by sending them to Carol Wiebe at cwiebe@ mhbcplan.com.
We are moving forward. We are approved by the government to move on to the next stage and reaching out to the public is part of that.