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.

Accessibility means more than plenty of parking

What if you don't have access to a motor vehicle or someone to drive you?

Public transit access was supposed to be evaluated in the planning process for our new single site acute care hospital. However, More Than Transit, a review of Windsor's public transit service, didn't start until the fall of 2018. Public engagement was conducted in March 2019 - long after Windsor City Council's August 2018 approval to develop Sandwich South. Without data regarding public transit and other forms of active transportation (such as walking and cycling) prior to the City's approval, accessibility concerns -- including the financial costs -- weren't formally addressed in the planning process. How could Windsor City Council possibly have been satisfied that the County Road 42 hospital site would meet residents' accessibility needs?

"More than Transit" Transit Windsor (TW) started a year-long multi-step overhaul in the fall of 2018:

Why a Transit Service Review?  "We’re looking at how transit can support the healthy growth and development of our neighbourhoods. We’re looking at more than transit. The year-long project consists of a review of Transit Windsor’s current network and ridership, existing policies, objectives, service standards and performance targets, as well as system and route performance. It also reviews operating and capital budgets, organization and staffing levels, fleet and facilities, and bus stop amenities including terminals." -- More Than Transit

A completely new public transit route network has been developed. It includes several new connections to the proposed County Road 42 hospital site, but no bus routes within the greenlighted 1,000 acre (400 ha) subdivision to its south - an area that is to accommodate thousands of residents and employees under the plan:

Active Transportation is walking, cycling and public transit This is important in our aging community, where as many as one in five households doesn't own a car. More young people than ever before are choosing to live car-free lifestyles. Windsor City Council received the city's new Active Transportation Master Plan(ATMP) on July 22, 2019. It’s an ambitious $150M plan to guide Windsor’s active transportation investments over the next 20 years. Cognitive dissonance: "very low" active transportation potential in Sandwich South The ATMP (p. 27) identifies Windsor's core areas (in dark blue) as having very high active transportation potential. In contrast, Sandwich South (the lower right quadrant of the map), where the proposed new single site acute care hospital is to be located, is identified as having very low active transportation potential:

This corroborates Windsor Airport's concerns (p. 297) about the feasibility of active transportation along County Road 42:

"Equity need": 14% of Windsor area households don't own a car The ATMP (p.28) describes Windsor neighbourhoods "where limited access to walking or bicycle facilities is compounded by socio-economic challenges."  Residents who can't afford to own a car rely on the least expensive forms of transportation: walking, cycling and public transit. The areas with the highest equity need are dark blue on the map below. There is a large pocket to the east of the city, though population density and absolute population are greater in the neighbourhoods closer to Windsor's downtown:

"It is also important to ensure that those with the highest need are given priority – this is equity. Seeking the input of underrepresented and vulnerable groups to help guide the design and construction of transportation infrastructure will help ensure that these facilities are reflective of the particular needs of these groups ... ... In areas with high equity need, car ownership rates are often quite low due to the expense of owning and maintaining a vehicle. The City should ensure that these areas receive targeted pedestrian, cycling, and transit improvements. This will help ensure that residents of these communities have access to pedestrian facilities that support them in their movements around their community on foot, and allow them to safely move around their neighbourhood without requiring a vehicle to do so." -- Walk Wheel Windsor: Active Transportation Master Plan Final Report

Conflicting priorities for active transportation The current hospital campuses are easy to reach on foot, by bike or by bus.

The 1C is TW's most frequent and heavily used route today: It stops at both Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) campuses, as well at Hotel-Dieu/Grace Tayfour. Several other current bus routes also serve these sites.

In contrast, the proposed hospital location on County Road 42 (15km from Ouellette Campus) will be almost impossible to reach on foot or by bike. The east-west E.C. Row Expressway and the north-south arterial roads are unsuited to walking and cycling.

The ATMP (p.11) explicitly identifies bike lanes and sidewalks south of County Road 42 as very low priority:

Consider this: Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington (pop. 28k) is more accessible for Kingsville (pop. 22k) residents -- a 12km distance -- than a hospital on County Road 42 will be to the 100,000 people in Windsor's central neighbourhoods!

Unsustainable complexity: Financial and time considerations TW is not financially sustainable without municipal subsidies. It doesn't operate 24/7. How is it financially possible to take on the additional service to County Road 42 when riders are clamouring for improved service on existing routes, as evidenced by the feedback it received from its public engagement? How will it provide adequate service to its users -- the disabled, the elderly, young people and those who don't have access to a car or just don't drive? Today, a single ride bus fare is $3.00. How much more will it cost riders to take ANY bus if the new hospital is built on Windsor's outskirts? How is the cost gap going to be covered? An exurban single site acute care hospital will cost bus riders and taxpayers more, in money and time. Several connection routes to the County Road 42 hospital site have been proposed. Yet, they will add additional transfers and wait times for most people - - - extra travel time from most Windsor locations. And that's if the bus runs on schedule. Infrastructure like the extended transit network will be paid by Windsor taxpayers in perpetuity It is true that the County is contributing $92 million to the project. However, this is earmarked for hospital construction. If built as proposed, Windsor residents will be on the hook for hundreds of millions more - though tens of thousands of city dwellers will have greatly diminished hospital access. What was WRH's CEO thinking when he said this?

FACT: The people who most frequently go to hospital are its thousands of healthcare workers. Today, many live within walking or cycling distance. Not only is this healthier and more convenient, but they don't need to deal with parking.

Trips to the hospital for (some) day procedures, volunteer work and visits to in-patients are also possible by active transportation. Other accessible options overlooked Besides the County Road 42 farmland location, other potential urban hospital sites, some on existing bus routes, were proposed during the site selection process. These sites in developed areas of the City would not require significant resident-funded infrastructure improvements. This project will shape our community for the next half century. Yet, did the decision makers only pay lip service to public transit and other active transportation needs? To summarize: The ATMP identifies neighbourhoods where residents are most likely to be dependent on active transportation. Yet these areas are farthest from the location of the proposed new hospital. Transit Windsor proposes no bus routes south of County Road 42.  Bike lanes and sidewalks are explicitly identified as very low priority in Sandwich South. There is no insight into the anticipated costs to taxpayers - in perpetuity - of maintaining 24/7 public transit service to the proposed hospital site. Real active transportation planning appears to have been omitted in the approval process for our new $2 billion County Road 42 single site acute care hospital and the surrounding Sandwich South development. How does the City of Windsor consider this to be acceptable planning?

In their own words: Weekly round-up of comments from our friends and neighbours "My mom was in the hospital a few weeks ago, absolutely have no complaints about her care. My complaint is the rooms are not as clean as they should be, please don't blame it on the age of the facility" "If placing this in a more central location will cause it not to be built, what does this say about whether it was truly necessary to build it at all? Why would a change in location stop its construction, or support by the upper levels of government?" "Accessibility means more than how easy it is to get there by car " "Enclosed is a cheque for CAMPP legal fees. Here's hoping some resolution is achieved within the near future. Thanks for all your work." "Modest contribution enclosed. Wish it could be ten times as much." "We won't lose it. The hospital is good. It's the location that doesn't work." "And how does a hospital in the middle of nowhere- very inaccessible to those who rely on public or active transportation (which is predominantly the poor and elderly) -allow family and friends to provide a "familiar and reassuring presence"? The planning committee really bungled this one, minimizing built-in social interaction by design and making it next-to-impossible for the most vulnerable members of society to visit their hospitalized family and friends!" "I don't believe urban planning is central to the hospital argument, the hospital itself is. However, good overall urban planning makes sense and the hospital should be a part of that." "I will live 16 kilometers from the 'mega', if it is built at the proposed site. I doubt there is a single soul in Toronto who is that far from an emergency room. Our mayor and council are playing with our lives." "A major acute care hospital with an international airport at its doorstep raises issues. Windsor International Airport encompasses 2,200 acres, of which approximately 1,100 have been identified surplus and earmarked for a variety of aviation commercial, non-aviation and industrial (solar farm) development. Proposed residential accommodation south of that airport places that airport facility at the demographic hub or the critical core of a “Not So Smart City”." "one of the worst decisions our city has ever made" "So many longer trips will not be good for the environment. Or time or money." "We vote people into positions of authority because we 'think' they'll represent our best interests better than some other candidate. What we're really doing is voting them into 'power' to better represent the interests of someone 'other than' us. Any opposition to their agenda(s) is treated as disloyal, and they've all the money/power necessary to convince the masses/common law courts of their position. Thank God for those strong and wise enough to enlighten and encourage the rest of us to take action." "How the hell is my friend who has to go for cancer treatment get there. It will cost the taxpayers even more money. He thinking about moving to London." "why make things worse in the core? Going the wrong way. Check out Halifax, Nova Scotia has always kept a strong core, hospitals are kept there too." "I agree we need a new hospital but it makes no sense to close the existing hospitals in the core l. At least one should be left for acute/trauma. If you want to know why our hospitals are in such shitty conditions look no further than the CEO and board at WRH. They are not spending $ to properly maintain the existing hospitals in order to justify the new one. We still deserve well maintained hospitals in the meantime as it will take years to.build the new one WHEREVER that will be. Your hallway medicine won't stop if they are building the same amount of beds. We need more long term health care to get patients moving out and make room for new patients. A new building will not change this. It also won't change the fact that so many janitorial staff are laid off to keep the hospital clean. This doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize these things. Just a little common sense and compassionate reflection . Trust me, i have had experience as a patient and a caregiver. I had to clean my mom's area and take her for showers or she didn't get one. A new building won't fix that. We do deserve a new building but must not forget the vulnerable sectors within the City"

The countdown to our LPAT hearing is on

It takes place from October 8 to 10, 2019 We have only 6 weeks to raise another $37,000 to pay our legal fees. How you can help:

We need your financial support to pay for it.  We need $37,000 more to reach our fundraising goal of $100,000. 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

A QUICK POLL: What's happening at the Grace site?

Photo taken Thursday, August 29th, 2019 at 4.15 p.m. The billboard states: "Future home of the proposed urgent care centre / main satellite facility."

Do you believe Windsor Regional Hospital is going to use the former Grace Hospital site on University Avenue for future health care services?  Yes No

In their own words: Weekly round-up of comments from our friends and neighbours

"Some people would like to see our existing facilities renovated, some would like to see a multi-hospital approach and most simply want to see a more urban location for the new single site hospital project. That said there are many voices and independent thinkers. Not everyone who opposes the plan is part of CAMPP just as not everyone who supports the location is a WRH employee. If someone in the community says “scrap the whole thing” I would say with absolute certainty that individual does not represent the majority nor does that represent the official stance of CAMPP in any way."

"I will always go with the quote from Tom Hunt [Chief Planner, City of Windsor] at the midnight hour that fateful [August 13, 2018] evening. “We don’t want to lose development to our bedroom communities”. Our administration simply has lost faith citizens will want to live in the city. They’d sooner move to the county. So we have a city council that doesn’t believe it’s city centre is worth living in."

"I find it astonishing that in the face of colossal infrastructure debt, crumbling infrustructure, wide scale flooding issues, economic instability and a massive aging population that @CityWindsorON continues to defend new development of 400hectares because...well because they can"

"Thom Hunt [Chief Planner, City of Windsor] knows the perils of sprawl. I’m sure if he wasn’t tied to council directives we’d be seeing very high quality work and progressive decision making. I certainly think Urban Planners should be given more power over decision making and should not feel threatened by undue pressure from various sources."

"It’s been a polarizing debate this far, the differences in opinion about the proposal are vast. I can see why some people might not understand why CAMPP is concerned with the proposal at all, and because of that I’d be happy to discuss my perspective with anyone who is interested."

"Montreal’s MUHC is a very interesting project. I particularly like how it was constructed on a brownfield plot with great transit connections."

"#ACCESSIBILITY is a #SOCIALJUSTICE issue. It’s one of the many issues why building what will be our only hospital away from the city’s most dense neighbourhoods is a very poor planning strategy. Lets #ReThink and plan with conscience and responsibility"

"Thank you. Great points.  The  financial burden  on windsor taxpayers is irresponsible and fraudulent,  to pay for a hospital  for the  county. We have higher  property taxes now and high utility costs, that keep rising, this is not  sustainable or reasonable  or  fair . Look at  the costs of Adventure Bay  for example. There  is a history of questionable  judgement benefiting  which groups? I can tell  you not the taxpayer."