It's a done deal: Ontario IS committed to healthcare investment in Windsor-Essex

“My very real concern is that this will go off the rails and we won’t be getting a new hospital...At what point are you willing to forsake a brand new hospital over issues like location and a process that was not ours?” -- Windsor Councillor Fred Francis, Windsor Star, May 25, 2019 Yet, this week the Ontario Government reaffirmed its support for a new hospital Windsor-Essex is getting the money Infrastructure Ontario, the Crown agency responsible for delivering capital projects across Ontario, released its Fall 2019 Market Update on September 10, 2019. It's an update that lists all major public infrastructure projects, including public hospitals. A new acute care hospital for Windsor-Essex is one of 32 projects on this list. In response to the news, David Musyj, CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital said: "It reaffirms the Government of Ontario’s commitment to our proposed new facility and we are excited to get moving on this vital and ambitious development for our region." Indeed. This must be very welcome news for those who worried about publicly expressing their misgivings about the location of the new hospital. The fear of jeopardizing the government's commitment to funding a new local hospital facility has long been used as a threat against Windsor-Essex residents who've questioned the proposed location. That's not a constructive way to engage the community most affected by this monumental local healthcare infrastructure decision. Which part of the deal is done, the financing or the location? “The CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, David Musyj, said there are no doubts that Windsor's new acute care facility will be located on County Road 42.” -- CBC, December 5, 2017 The real "done deal" is the government's commitment to financing new healthcare infrastructure in Windsor-Essex. Since 2014, local decision makers have been bullying, coercing, confusing and scaring residents with messaging designed to suppress any questions or concerns regarding critical flaws in the hospital site selection process: ACUTE issues affecting accessibility, cost, urban planning, transparency and the environment. The selected site for the hospital (revealed in July 2015) has never truly been a "done deal." The development of Sandwich South - - the area where the proposed County Road 42 hospital is to be located - - was ONLY approved by Windsor City Council in August 2018. And that decision is currently the subject of an LPAT appeal. But provincial investment in Windsor-Essex healthcare is solid. Stop the fearmongering about losing this investment. Stop villifying vocal, deeply concerned residents. This project will affect the community for generations to come: "While opposition is understandable, deliberate attempts to delay or derail this kind of investment in local health care is irresponsible and threatens the project." -- Drew Dilkens, mayor, City of Windsor, Gary McNamara, warden, County of Essex, Dave Cooke, co-chair, programs and services steering committee David Musyj, president and CEO, Windsor Regional Hospital, Janice Kaffer, president and CEO, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Janice Dawson, CEO, Erie Shores Healthcare, Windsor Star, May 4, 2019 "If the project dies, said Musyj, its foes will find a way to blame [David Musyj] or the hospital 'then they’ll run for cover and you’ll never hear from them again.'" -- Windsor Star, May 25, 2019 We must start planning a new healthcare system that includes a Windsor-based hospital campus in an established neighbourhood where the municipal infrastructure already exists. The countdown to our LPAT hearing is on It will take place from October 8 to 10, 2019 We have 4 weeks to raise $27,500 We need your financial support to pay for it.  We need $27,500 more to reach our $100,000 fundraising goal. 1.  Double your money! This week an anonymous donor stepped forward to offer to match all donations towards our appeal, up to $1,000! Please take him up on his generous offer!  Amplify your impact and share broadly. If you haven’t contributed yet, there is no better time to start. 2.  Please come to our Variety Show fundraiser on Friday, September 20th at the Green Bean Cafe, from 6-9 p.m. at 2320 Wyandotte Street West. All are welcome; please invite your friends! For more information, see the event poster below. Thank you to each and every one of you who contributed so generously to our legal fund since we launched this campaign in February 2019. Some of you have made multiple donations. One of our donors even shared a modest lottery win with us! Many of you donated anonymously because you didn't want your employer to know. Please help us reach our fundraising goal by donating what you can afford --- No amount is too large or too small. If you can only afford $10, that's fine as well. If you wish to donate anonymously, GoFundMe will allow you to do so. Some people prefer to donate directly. If you would like to do so too, please email our fundraising team for details. Click here to contribute to or share our GoFundMe In their own words: Weekly round-up of comments from our friends and neighbours "I am a R.N. working for over 32 years at the Ouellette campus on the front lines and have wholeheartedly agreed with CAMPP since its inception. Thank you so much for all you have done!" "Most important civic decision of my lifetime" "More than ever we need accountable decision makers using forward thinking. Our very existence at the planetary level is at stake, so every local decision now matters greatly for the present and future. The hospital location, land use decisions, and transportation plans are key issues for broader community health." "Airports should serve passengers, not patients. No hospital on County Rd. 42!" "My family has required hospital care at both MET Main and MET Ouellette this year and emerg care at Ouellette very recently. During our most recent health crisis, I observed hundreds of people (young families, old couples, and individuals) receive necessary emerg care arriving by family transport, public transit, and on foot. During one emerg visit I counted a dozen ambulance drops. I live within walking distance of MET Ouellette [sic]. On an average day I hear sirens at least a half-dozen times. Stripping our services in the core to build Mega at 42 will literally rape [sic] countless core residents of critical life-saving care. All Windsor residents deserve adequate health care. Build the hospital where the people live. This isn't a county vs city debate. This isn't a debate about the perceived quality-of-life in the core. This is about building health care where *MOST* people can readily and easily access health care." "This is a bad plan, in more ways than just the location. Name one city who survives its downtown core dying. Name one reason to support paving over valuable green farmland in the face of record flooding and unprecedented climate change. Name one reason why its ok to demolish two hospitals, in favour of no added beds or new services. Name one reason why spreading a city, that is only aging and not growing in population, out so thin that we just leave our already empty concrete spaces unused and in despair. Name one reason why we have to line the pockets of some developers and concrete mongers just so some unelected officials can get their way. We ALL want healthcare to improve in our community. But the plan HAS TO BE GOOD!!!! It has to be sustainable and responsible and transparent. Take yourself out of the argument about the new proposed location, and look at everything else. Our city has made so many mistakes already. We put a pool downtown and a sports/entertainment venue way out in the suburbs? We have gutted the heart of our own city already by abandoning the downtown core. We CANNOT afford to make another mega mistake." "Just name one actual advantage of that location, over choice number 2 near Lauzon Parkway and Tecumseh Rd., that is important enough to justify the chosen sites extra millions in infrastructure costs to be borne by Windsor taxpayers alone. Not only will it cost Windsorites more to service the site; its also far more difficult to access." "How is taking two hospitals from the most densely populated and arguably median income areas and providing preferential care to the rural and wealthiest areas with the lowest population density even remotely fair?" "How silly to build in a field when there are many other suitable locations that already have most, if not all, the infrastructure already in place." "I wonder how the elderly on a fixed income will get there! They’ll be just as unable to visit their family members. I live in the city core and would have no way out to the hospital neither would my husband who wouldn’t be able to be with me or I with him if either of us were hospitalized." "Nobody wants them to lose funding. We just want transparency and planning that adheres to policies that were put in position for the best interest of the communities." "Parking at this site (County Road 42 ) will be designed to maximize profits ..You'll either have to park at their designated lots at their posted  fees  or YOU WON'T PARK AT ALL.  Hospitals located within a more convenient and friendly environment as we have now give the visitor some options. There will be no options for those planning to visit this proposed site on 42. Terrible. The gang that 's behind the 42 location has spent more on billboard signs and newspaper ads than they have on consulting the public... check books...And we're paying for this ! " About CAMPP Citizens for an Accountable Mega-Hospital Planning Process (CAMPP) is a grassroots citizens group that formed in 2014 to ensure: all voices are heard and counted in the planning of Windsor-Essex’s new hospital decision-making be financially, socially and environmentally responsible sound urban planning principles are followed. “...all our human economic achievements have been done by ordinary people... Yet without understanding this, people are all too willing to fall for the idea that they can’t do this, they themselves, or anybody they know, because they’re too ordinary.” -- JANE JACOBS For those who have used degrading, disparaging or vilifying language in speaking about Citizens for an Accountable Mega-hospital Planning Process, please remember:   We are your neighours, your family, your coworkers: We are all members of the Windsor-Essex community. Everybody deserves accessible and adequate healthcare services. This is CAMPP's mission.