Emergency Fundraiser

 

Dear CAMPP friends and supporters, We urgently need your help, more than ever before. As you may be aware, on May 11, 2021, the Divisional Court ruled against CAMPP in our challenge of the 2019 LPAT ruling, in favour of The City of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital. The Court ordered us to pay their costs. Justice Corbett gave us 30 days to pay up. CAMPP needs to raise $55,750 before June 11, 2021. But first, despite local media coverage and so much online chatter to the contrary, let’s talk about what the original December 2019 LPAT ruling was not. The Tribunal did not approve County Road 42 as the best place for the future single site acute care hospital. It left that question open. Mr. Tousaw wrote in his Decision:

[5]  Also for context, of importance is what is not before the Tribunal. This case is a land use planning appeal. It is not an appeal of the health care planning process, its criteria for site selection or the alternative sites evaluated but not chosen. It is quite possible, based on various criteria or the body evaluating them, that some might conclude that a better site exists for the proposed hospital. The Tribunal cannot and need not determine that County Road 42 and Concession Road 9 is the best site for a regional hospital …

The LPAT ruling did not approve the loss of Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette and Metropolitan campuses. The ruling did not approve Ouellette Campus becoming a limited hours urgent care centre. The ruling did not consider these issues at all, nor the potential dire economic, social and environmental consequences to the region that CAMPP identified. It gave approval for “a” hospital on County Road 42. We understand you are angry that this was such a narrow ruling. We understand how disappointed you are that the Divisional Court didn’t overturn LPAT’s decision. Like you, we also were disappointed by the media coverage that made it look like the new hospital was approved, rather than the more complex truth: Four hundred acres of active farmland in Sandwich South were approved for a new subdivision. And a hospital on County Road 42 adjacent to the airport, could be built, if desired.   All wars are won one battle at a time. And we lost this one.  It may not seem fair. It may not feel right. We feel the same way. But we don’t have the luxury of being able to lick our wounds.  We need your help to pay this debt. Right now. You can make your voice heard by helping us to settle our debt to the City of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital. Each contribution is a message to decision makers at all three levels of government that hospitals belong where people live. We intend to keep advocating for a better plan. Please be generous. And help us get the word out. No amount is too small or too big. But remember, our deadline for contributions is June 11, 2021.

Click here to donate to our GoFundMe

Please note: you can also etransfer your donation directly to our account using our email address: windsorcampp@gmail.com.

In their own words: Some of the social media comments by disappointed members of our community following the Divisional Court Decision:

“The hospital governance is both autonomous and a public trust, yet the mechanisms for citizen participation and authentic impact are truncated or bifurcated to such an extent that there is no effective legal or social recourse. Truly a social injustice on a systemic level.”

“Court rulings don’t necessarily mean justice was served.”

“I think your support has only grown since this social Justice fight began!!!”

“It is a mystery how they can speak of an improved downtown while simultaneously gutting it.”

“Yesterday I was told by a worker at Ouellette campus that the hospital will not close and that there will always be a hospital in the downtown…There are way too many people who still do not know what is happening and they are being duped.”

“I speculate the new hospital location was based on politics (land value in the new hospital area will skyrocket) instead of the best location for the residents (obviously near the population core where infrastructure exists).”

“we ALL want a new hospital not to the detriment of our two current hospitals which will close and not in a "land locked" location next to the International airport on the outskirts of the City on the Little River Flood Plain. We have put so many public facilities in the wrong location(s) in this City WE don't need any more, thank you very much.”

“I was told that before GM closed everthing along Walker Rd. was upgraded to support their needs. That is a huge amount of money that doesn't have to be spent on our taxpayer dime.”

“The only reason this location has been chosen is so construction and real estate companies can get cheap infrastructure at the cost of only Windsor residents for a county hospital. They will have more access to hospitals then Windsor residents they still have Leamington and Chatham hospitals”

“If only some effort has been made to improve this plan. One hospital for 440,000 people is just dumb.”

“It’s still an awful location.”

“it still wouldn't be built by now, you know. It IS a government project, and they take YEARS (ex: Hwy 3 expansion, downtown police station/jail, the jail on walker road, the bridge, and on and on. This project IS NO EXCEPTION.”

“There is ample time to get this right.”