Someone, please follow the money....

A Tight Network of Local Power Brokers Persists in Dominating the Planning and Location of the New Hospital

Click on the image to see an annotated version that shows the people connected to these organizations

CAMPP's research unearthed an incestuous web of influence hiding in plain sight: A small handful of people controls a network of extremely prominent regional industry and community organizations. Exploiting their position, these insiders have sustained an illusion of local support for the deeply flawed plan for a single site regional acute care hospital, undermining a vital public process.

On its website, Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) promotes 8 letters of support for the new hospital location on County Road 42, written by 11 organizations not obviously connected to WRH or to local elected or other officials. However, WRH is not revealing the whole story.

The organizations endorsing the rural hospital location are listed numerically below in alphabetical order. In all but one instance (#8), the internal governance of these organizations demonstrates a direct and interconnected relationship to WRH, the City of Windsor and Windsor Family Credit Union (WFCU) (shown below in boldface):

1. Alzheimer Society of Windsor Essex: Dave Cooke, co-Chair of the WRH steering committee for the new hospital, is an honorary director of the Alzheimer Society. Mr. Cooke, a former NDP Cabinet Minister, served as the Board Chair of the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), resigning shortly before his committee appointment in 2012. Long-time CEO Sally Bennett Olczak was the City of Windsor's Seniors Advisory Committee Chair through December 2018. The list of directors on the Alzheimer Society's Board includes two directors of WRH's Board: Gay Wrye was a member of the WRH Board from 2005-2016 and served as Chair from 2012-2014. She was also on the steering committee for the new hospital Arvind Arya is a current member of WRH's Board Alzheimer Society board member Bill Marcotte is a manager at WRH.

Click on the image tto see a larger version

2. Essex County Chinese Canadian Association: Stephen Tsui, P.Eng, President of the Essex County Chinese Canadian Association, signed a letter of support for the new hospital plan. Mr. Tsui is a senior consultant with Stantec Consulting. Stantec has been directly involved in the planning of the new hospital for WRH and is a significant and regular consultant to the City of Windsor Stantec's consulting work includes other projects directly related to the development of Sandwich South: the Upper Little River Watershed Master Drainage Plan and Stormwater Management Plan, and the Environmental Assessment Study for the expansion of Lauzon Parkway Gary Ing, WRH's former Chief of Staff and ex-officio Board member, served three terms as President of the Essex County Chinese Canadian Association.

3. Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County (MCC): Current MCC President is Allison Johnson, Manager of Communications at WRH. Aruna Koushik, who was Vice President of MCC when its letter of support was written, is also a WRH employee. Fred Francis, City of Windsor Councillor for Ward 1, is Director of Programs and Development at MCC. His older brother Eddie Francis is the City of Windsor's previous Mayor and now heads WFCU. Eddie Francis was a key organizer of a $1M fundraising effort for the new hospital.

4. Retired Teachers of Ontario, District 7, Windsor-Essex: The undated letter of support by the Retired Teachers of Ontario is especially puzzling. It replicates much of the language from a letter by Chaiman James Sparrow that was published in the Windsor Star on November 16, 2016. When CAMPP wrote to Mr. Sparrow to query his suggestion that 2,330 retired teachers and support personnel endorsed the controversial hospital project, his reply was surprisingly testy. We have no idea to whom he was referring with his statement: "...your two other members who emailed at the same time" or what these people may have written. Most remarkably, the bottom of this email included WRH CEO David Musyj's electronic footer, yet CAMPP didn't copy Mr.Musyj on this email to Mr. Sparrow. So one may assume Mr. Sparrow forwarded our email to Mr. Musyj who provided him with assistance in drafting a response.  One may conclude that Mr. Sparrow simply failed to remove this rather obvious WRH electronic footprint when sending his response to CAMPP.

Click the image above to see CAMPP's email and a larger version of Mr. Sparrow's reply.

5. The United Church Downtown Mission of Windsor (The Mission): Dan Wilson, Chairman of WRH's Board has been The Mission's Board Chair since 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. (Mr. Wilson very recently resigned from the Mission's Board in February 2020 over the collapse of The Mission's purchase of the Windsor Public Library's Central Branch). Steve Erwin, WRH's Manager of Corporate Communications, is a member of The Mission's Board of Directors.

6.  Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation (WEEDC): Current City of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, and Tom Bain, Warden of the County of Essex, have served on the WEEDC Board for many years. Marty Komsa, former WFCU President and CEO, was WEEDC's Chair in both 2015 and 2016. WFCU's ties to WRH are complex and deep: Its CEO Eddie Francis -- City of Windsor Mayor (2003- 2014) and brother of Ward 1 Councillor Fred Francis -- was named President of WFCU in 2016 Patti France, St. Clair College’s President, serves on the Boards of both WFCU and WRH WRH's former Chief of Staff and ex-officio Board member Dr. Gary Ing serves on the Board at WFCU

7.  Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce: Jason Ilijanic is the Chamber of Commerce Chair. He is also Director of Commercial Services at WFCU. Marty Komsa, former WFCU President and CEO, is a past Chair of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

8.  Windsor Construction Association, Heavy Construction Association of Windsor: The Boards of Directors and memberships of these two industry groups are a Who's Who of local developers and construction companies. There's absolutely nothing surprising about their desire to see shovels in the ground as soon as possible. Permission to start building would be a quick win and short term economic gain for these two organizations and their membership, regardless of the long-term consequences to the community.

Misrepresentations of support, suppression of opposition The long-serving Chair of the Windsor Essex chapter of the Board of CARP (formerly Canadian Association of Retired Persons), Larry Duffield, is also the former Chair of the Seniors Advisory Committee (SAC). SAC is a committee of the City of Windsor. WRH promotes CARP and SAC in the list of endorsements on its website. But the hotlinks don't connect to letters of support. Instead, they link to presentations from the contentious April 25, 2016 City of Windsor Council meeting. This was the meeting when the levy to pay the 10% local share of the new hospital's construction cost was approved. WRH makes no mention of the community's widespread and continued opposition to the location of the new hospital. Yet, at that same April 25, 2016 Council meeting, 27 members of the public pleaded with Council not to support the proposed location. By burying the evidence, WRH continues to project an inaccurate image of unified support for the deeply unpopular rural site of the new hospital. Read transcripts of the community's oral and additional written submissions at this link.

So, who hasn't endorsed the plan?   It's striking, that in the five years since the new hospital plan was announced, nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers have not put their signatures to any letters endorsing the hospital plan. The only signatories were the hospital department heads (the Medical Advisory Committee), all of whom are on WRH's payroll. If it's such a good plan, why haven't we seen unsolicited public support from the hospital's 4,000+ health care workers? WRH has had since 2015 to demonstrate consistent and overwhelming staff approval. Yet, it hasn't happened. BTW: If in response to this question, WRH suddenly "produces" approval, beware: It is also very likely not what it seems. Like WRH's recent underwriting of a pro-County Road 42 "advertorial" edition of The Drive magazine masquerading as a “special report.” Or the so-called "grassroots group" that arrived fully funded right before the LPAT appeal last fall. “42 Forward” emerged out of nowhere with a logo, branded t-shirts, signs and a "rally" promoted by WRH. The "rally" was held inside a suburban Windsor funeral home's event space, and featured "light desserts, munchies and refreshments with entertainment by The Wellness Band from The Hospice of Windsor and Essex County," as well as plenty of free parking. Starring WRH's Chief of Staff, this "rally" was videotaped for later distribution on local Cable TV. Despite the freebees and lock step support of local media, the event attracted fewer than the room's capacity of 300 - a picture is worth a thousand words. FYI: Physicians with privileges at WRH wishing to express negative concerns remain contractually muzzled. So it shouldn't be surprising that physicians who are against the plan have been publicly silent  --  for years. Yet we've privately heard from numerous health care workers and their families who are against the County Road 42 site. But they were so afraid to be publicly associated with our campaign that they've donated money to our legal appeal anonymously. Several physicians have told us they were contacted by hospital administration who instructed them to "let the process play out."  We've also heard from nurses who were advised to keep their views to themselves. What about other local non-profit organizations? Many community organizations haven't endorsed the plan. Among them: Business Improvement Associations Street Help, Windsor Youth Centre (WYC) and Hiatus House Windsor Regional Society of Architects (WRSA) and Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Illustrating community support for the rural hospital location appears to have been a highly strategic political exercise. Each letter of support by a community organization can be traced back to officials at Windsor Regional Hospital, the City of Windsor, Windsor Family Credit Union. It's remarkable that there are no letters of support from independent unaffiliated organizations other than industry groups that stand to financially benefit from the development. Will someone please follow the money? If you are troubled by this web of insider influence, let your elected representatives, your friends and family know.  Contact information is on our website at this link.

In their own words: Members of our community continue to comment on the issues

"Windsor and Essex county communities still building like it’s 1980. And they don’t seem to see the disconnect between the climate emergencies their trying to address, and the paving over of their communities."

"How much has been spent promoting and defending the indefensible, and how much staff time has been spent lobbying the government to go along with their plan?"

"Thank you CAMPP for your tenacity, your clear, knowledge-based communication and your important perspectives that extend well beyond the issue of the hospital, and that helps to connect the dots between health and health care, policy, governance, economics and values. In times of crisis, such as we are in the age of climate emergency, the importance of providing access to a deep and broad analysis of municipal politics cannot be underestimated!"

"We are adding to the sprawl by building a mega hospital in 42."

"Our municipal leaders must decide which is more important. Living conditions or their legacy projects."

"'a majority of people I've spoken too feel building a new hospital on the outskirts of the city in am unserviced bean field feel it's a poor idea that lacked proper community consultation."