Questions about the Fate of the Met Campus

 

For years now, residents have been regularly asked to put aside questions of transparency and legitimacy about the greenfield mega-hospital plan.  As recently as two weeks ago, we were once again cautioned to blindly support the deeply flawed hospital plan, so it can move to the next planning stage.  In a written response provided to CTV News to the "five nagging questions" we asked in our August 16, 2020 e-blast, Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) stated, "...many of the questions put forward by CAMPP fall under the Stage 2 planning process." Which questions would those be? And what about the remaining questions - when will they be addressed? Would you buy a new house from a seller who asked you to sign on the dotted line before addressing any of the issues highlighted during the home inspection? This week, our "nagging questions" revolve around the planned closure and demolition of WRH's Metropolitan Campus (Met). Can residents of South Walkerville expect to endure many years of uncertainty and urban blight, much like homeowners who lived near the former Grace site on Crawford Avenue at University Avenue West?

CTV News photos of the boarded up former Grace Hospital site prior to its 2013 demolition.

The "mega-hospital plan" announced on July 15, 2015 included a land-swap: the City-owned former Grace Hospital site was to be swapped for the current Met Campus site. Exactly five years later, on July 16, 2020, the City of Windsor unveiled a mixed-use commercial and residential plan for the former Grace Hospital site, thereby taking its 2015 swap announcement off the table. What will be Met’s fate?  Will all structures including the Regional Cancer Centre (built in 2001) be demolished? Will all debris and foundations be removed? Will it immediately be restored to a grassy field to provide a “blank canvas” for future use? Or will it be left for years to deteriorate like the former Grace site?

1. Ownership: Will the Met Campus site be taken over by the City for residential development (as announced to the public on July 15, 2015) or will it remain in WRH's hands? 2. Site redevelopment: The former Grace Hospital was closed in 2004. It wasn't demolished until 2013. Although today it is an empty field, for nine years it was a decaying, abandoned building surrounded by a chainlink fence. We were originally promised a long-term care facility on the site. That never materialized. Then in 2015, WRH erected a billboard promising a "future" urgent care centre (UCC). That billboard remained a year after a UCC was no longer anywhere in the plans. False advertising? Residents have every right to be worried about a similar lack of momentum at the Met Campus site. How can area residents be assured WRH's Met Campus will not be left to fester like the Grace site? 3. Land Needs Assessment: What analysis has been performed to determine the residential housing needs in the South Walkerville neighbourhood where the Met Campus currently stands? With the third shift at the nearby Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plant recently eliminated and the anticipated loss of the hospital as a neighbourhood anchor, what future use is best for this 14 acre site? 4. Long-Term Care (LTC) beds: Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives came to power in the 2018 election on a promise to add 15,000 new beds for Ontario seniors over five years. Has any serious thought been given to repurposing the Met Campus to create more LTC (or Alternative Level of Care) beds? 5. Planning for the future: The final $101 million phase of a massive "state-of-the-art" expansion and renovation project was completed at WRH's Met Campus only 16 years ago:

2004 Expansion & Renovation of the Met Campus Price Tag: $101 million The Windsor Star, June 30, 2004   Windsor Regional Hospital's sickest patients will have spacious rooms and high-tech beds thanks to a brand new critical care facility. "These are state-of-the-art," said critical care manager Wendy Dalgleish as she demonstrated one bed's array of electronic foot switches. The new facility, which opened Tuesday, is equipped with 19 beds for intensive care, coronary care, and post-surgery patients. Dalgleish said the modern beds enable nurses to adjust a patient's position with the touch of a button. She also pointed out an improved heart and lung monitoring system. "Our old system is at least 20 years old." Located in the West Tower of the Met Campus, the new facility is the latest development in the Windsor Regional Hospital's massive renovation program. "Today's event is another component of a much bigger picture to restructure the entire Met Campus," said hospital president Dr. Martin Girash at the facility's opening. Construction at the West Tower has been underway since 2001. The program will ultimately renovate 325,000 square feet at a cost of more than $100 million.

We're wondering how many would ever have believed this building, including the Regional Cancer Centre that was built in 2001, would be declared "no longer fit for use" before 2020? Have all opportunities for renovation and adaptive reuse of the newer structures on the Met site been thoroughly studied?  What assurance do we have that the shelf life of the new single site acute care hospital will exceed two decades?

For those who have used degrading, disparaging or vilifying language in speaking about CAMPP, please remember:   We are your neighbours, 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.

Thank you for your many messages of support. Please continue to send us your comments and contribute to our fundraiser for legal expenses.  In their own words: Comments from our friends and neighbours

Everyone wants a new hospital but not in that location.

We need a third party to negotiate a new plan.

Imagine when they asphalt and cement over 60 acres for the hospital, the runoff into the Little River will be catastrophic for the residents in Forest Glade and Riverside.

I’m less than 5 minutes from Met. It’s the reason we moved to this neighbourhood. It infuriates me that they are going to plough Met under after this other hospital is built, moving emergency medical as well as the other services much farther away for not just me but a large portion of the east side of Windsor. The sheer arrogance and insensitivity of people who just say I should get over it astounds and saddens me.

We are being told these things will be handled, to just let them do their thing. But example after example have unfolded where we were told to be patient and let the experts do their thing, and the issues were NEVER addressed. Big examples? Windsor jail. Adventure Bay. The new City Hall. We saw poster boards. We asked questions. We were told they were artistic renditions and not to worry about those details. When it became clear that this was not the case we were told "we had a process, you should have said something sooner, everybody agreed".

5 Critical Questions

 

The real reasons why the mega-plan hasn't moved forward

For more than five years, thousands of Windsor-Essex residents have continuously voiced their concerns about the greenfield "mega-hospital" plan. To date, every nagging question remains unaddressed. Instead, municipal and hospital leaders have chosen to amplify false narratives and throw tax dollars at campaigns to divert public attention from the underlying issues preventing the plan from moving forward.  One recent example of these diversion tactics: WEEDC's current $100,000+ tax-funded promotional campaign launched without transparent municipal council approval. This is just another effort to suppress the real issues. Is this a desperate attempt to deceive provincial decision makers into believing there is overwhelming community support for the deeply flawed plan? Why, after so much time and effort, can residents not get straight answers to these and other critical questions?

1. Planned healthcare services: If the new hospital is built on County Road 42, what healthcare services are planned for the Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) Ouellette site? This continues to be a moving target, with several very optimistic plans for Downtown Windsor teased and now shelved. What can residents actually expect? 2. Legitimacy: How is it possible that WRH is "no longer fit for use,” when a new hospital - no matter where it's built - is still years away? Parts of WRH's two campuses have seen better days (though the original 1888 building at the Ouellette Campus was demolished in 1963). Others are relatively new, like the $17M Regional Cancer Centre built in 2001, and major state of the art renovations and expansions completed in 2005.  From the description of the Ouellette Campus renovation project in the August 31, 2003 edition of Health Care Design Magazine: "As a major step in the redevelopment process, a new 130,000-square-foot wing was constructed to the east of the existing hospital on three levels. This project includes the Emergency Department, Outpatient Clinics, Diagnostic Imaging, Surgical Suite, and ICU. As part of the new Diagnostic and Treatment addition, a new main entrance, drop-off, lobby, and vertical connections were created, along with a new ambulatory and ambulance emergency entrance, on Goyeau Street." How well have the two campuses been maintained since scuttling part of the first phase of a 20 year, $670M Ouellette Campus expansion in 2013? Have further necessary renovations to WRH been intentionally delayed in order to increase the public's support for the mega-plan?  How can both of WRH's two local campuses be in such disrepair while scoring 99.8% in the 2019 national accreditation process?  3. Transit service: If there's truly so much need to increase Windsor's developed footprint, why does the Windsor's Transit Master Plan state there's no need for bus routes to County Road 42 if no hospital is built?  4. Fiscal stewardship: How much will efficient and effective public transit service to County Road 42 actually cost? In tax dollars? In reduced service on other routes? In increased travel times and transit fares? 5. Transparency: Was a contract extension requested as required after July 21, 2017, under the terms of the $6 milllion purchase agreement for the land on County Road 42 at Concession 9? If so, what happened after January 17, 2018, 180 days after the original completion date? Why is the parcel still registered in the name of Michael O'Keefe Farms Inc?