Emergency Fundraiser Update - Week 1

 

Dear CAMPP friends and supporters, Thank you to the many individual donors who helped raise $11,000 in five days since launching our Emergency Fundaiser to pay our court-ordered $55,750 legal bill!  Many of you have also sent us messages or commented on social media - you can read these in the boxes below. We are so grateful to all the residents who continue to donate their time and resources to CAMPP's mission to keep hospital healthcare services accessible. We so appreciate your generosity. We heard from some members of our community who don't have much to spare. We know how hard times are. And yet, you still contributed what you could. Every dollar makes an important difference. You are so critical to ensuring the City of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital's plans for our future healthcare are equitable, inclusive and accessible. But we still need more support. CAMPP needs to raise a further $44,750 before June 11, 2021. Each contribution is a message to decision makers at all three levels of government that hospitals belong where people live. If you haven't done so already, or if you want to contribute again, please make your voice heard by helping us settle our debt to the City of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital. We are committed to continuing to advocate for a more sensible healthcare plan for our community, but we need to get our court-ordered legal bill behind us first. Please be generous. And help us get the word out. Please tell your friends about our Emergency Fundraiser. Everyone deserves a better healthcare plan. 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 recent comments by residents after the Divisional Court Decision:

“Our city deserves better.”

“It's a province mandate to preserve farmland but we're hell bent to pave over and build out. One glaring example is the proposed Mega Hospital on farmland. Hundreds of acres will be destroyed as other businesses and homes are built to be near this new hospital. Not to mention the millions to be spent on new roads, sewers, etc. Very poor planning on Windsor's leaders, but this is nothing new.”

“It's important to add our voices now.”

“remember that we are fighting this just cause for future generation. We’ll be dead and gone and they need it to be right.”

“I love how so many people are stepping up to donate and share. I was ready to give up the fight but not any more. Thank you!”

“Windsor Essex county must be the first area in Canada, to be wholly into the new Antropocene Epoch." [sic]

“I've tried for 9 Years to get answers from those responsible for this hospital project and NEVER RECEIVED A SINGLE REPLY !!!”

“pretty disgusting that the residents of Windsor have to pay out-of-pocket to try to defend keeping their institutions open.”

“Hospitals should be conveniently built where the majority of Windsor residents live. Lots of Windsor residents don't own a mean of transportation and can't afford to hire one if a medical emergency comes up.”

“Pursuing the County Rd 42 is so shamelessly disingenuous of Windsor and the Essex County Council, when only in today's Star, all are touting the 18-months-in-the-making 'regional energy plan aimed at addressing climate change issues'.”

“Hospitals need to be where people live. Please make the rational and logical choice: use the former GM site, not farmland, for our new hospital.”

“The proposed existing location so close to the Windsor Airport was a second choice. The first choice was just north of Tecumseh Rd. and in the open fields south of the Walmart area, but the price was a couple million dollars more."

“It's important that people see that REAL people are behind this, not just a few vague faces with money.”

“Always supportive of your incredible efforts to make our city a better place to live.”

“Thank you for all that you have done.”

Thank you for your many messages of support. Please continue to send us your comments.

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.”

When influencing public opinion seems to be the goal ...

 

Windsor Works: An Economic Development Strategy for the City's Future Growth?

At the Monday, February 8, 2021 Windsor City Council meeting, Council will consider recommendations contained in a report entitled Windsor Works: Economic Development Strategy for the City's Future Growth.  It was produced by Public First, a small policy and research company located in London, UK. The firm has a revolving door relationship with 10 Downing Street, the office of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and is the subject of a recent public controversy. It has no apparent municipal economic development expertise, or, for that matter, familiarity with Southwestern Ontario. Windsor Works was commissioned by Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. It's unclear what due diligence was done before deciding to appoint Public First to create this report. It offers no major new insights, data or observations. The report largely echoes Windsor City's existing 20 Year Strategic Vision. Many of the source documents referenced in Windsor Works' bibliography were authored by the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation (WE EDC). The report advocates for the new County Road 42 hospital site, but fails to note that if the hospital is built there, Windsor's established neighbourhoods will lose 5,000+ jobs. Nor does it offer recommendations for replacing that many jobs. How much did Windsor taxpayers pay for this "research"? The only public disclosure was that it cost less than $400,000.

Why is Windsor throwing money at a study to discover what we already know?  Strangely, the study doesn't cite any interviews or consultations with ordinary local residents, especially the talented young college and university graduates Windsor claims it wishes to retain, or its engaged grassroots community advocacy groups. An especially egregious oversight is that no one spoke with the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association (DWBIA), which represents almost 700 small and mid-sized local businesses. Was anyone, at any of the BIAs, actually interviewed? Mayor Dilkens wrote in a February 5, 2021 memo, "Detailed research, and hundreds of hours of local stakeholder consultations" took place with stakeholders that included a list of specific neighbourhood associations. Yet Windsor Works only indicated "site visits" to those same neighbourhoods. What new insights were gained? Is this study really meant to improve the city we live in, or is it just another Hail Mary to convince the provincial government that our municipal leadership knows what our residents want or need? It's a report that demonstrates more PR savvy than urban planning or economic development expertise. And it overlooks contemporary issues like community development, placemaking and climate change. Why commission a foreign company for this report? Public First, a small policy and research company located in London, UK, demonstrates, at best, a superficial understanding of our community. This is evident throughout the 314-page report that contains just 87 pages of actual narrative, including some sections repeated more than once.

But wait! Where did we see this before? Public First's website states that it helps: “organisations understand and influence public opinion through research and targeted communications campaigns"   This is uncannily similar to the description on the Ottawa-based Crestview Strategy website:   “We make, change, and mobilize public opinion”

The wording on both the Crestview Strategy and Public First websites promotes expertise in influencing public opinion. Is this merely coincidence? Is Windsor Works truly an independent, unbiased economic development study? Or is it a covert attempt to curate content in support of a pre-determined objective, ignoring the people who are vital to any successful local economic development strategy?  Surely Windsor constituents’ best interests are better served by engaging with residents and methodically building upon data to develop transparent evidence-based decisions!

We've written about Crestview Strategy many times since they launched their so-called "grassroots" lobbying campaign in 2020. They are the lobbyists to whom WEEDC awarded a $270,000+ contract to promote the mega-hospital plan.   Mayor Dilkens is a long-time Director on WE EDC’s Board, providing a leadership link directly to Windsor City Council. Council approves municipal funding for Windsor’s contribution to WE EDC’s core budget. Yet, Windsor City Council was not involved in the decision to fund WE EDC's Crestview campaign.

Windsor's lacklustre economic landscape In 2018, the Windsor CMA* per capita GDP was lower than in 2001. The graph below was taken from page 25 of Windsor Works. The report recommends revitalizing downtown Windsor to attract and retain highly talented workers.

* CMA = Census Metropolitan Area. It includes the City of Windsor and the Towns of Amherstburg, LaSalle, Lakeshore and Tecumseh

Recommendations incompatible with reality: How Windsor Works deals with the new hospital The report glosses over the new hospital location as a fait accompli in spite of CAMPP's ongoing legal appeal. And the provincial government has yet to give the project a go-ahead. There's no indication in the report that its authors visited the planned hospital location on County Road 42. This is unusual, given the importance of the hospital investment to our local economy. We're wondering if they even realized how distant it is from Windsor's central neighbourhoods. It's unclear how the healthcare needs of people living in the city’s central neighbourhoods are going to be met if a healthcare cluster is developed around the new hospital, as recommended in the report. There's no explanation of how these central neighbourhoods will be impacted by the relocation of 5,000+ healthcare jobs and all hospital services to County Road 42, or why a “global industrial park” will be developed on the airport lands adjacent to the hospital site -- an airport that may soon no longer have active air traffic controllers. Does this mean established healthcare services in the vicinity of the existing hospital campuses will disappear? If so, what will replace those 5,000+ jobs? Nowhere in the report is this addressed. Attracting and retaining talented post-secondary graduates There's plenty of contemporary research and data indicating educated young people prefer to live in walkable urban environments. But Windsor Works doesn't explain how a city that advocates for increased urban sprawl and auto dependence might be attractive to this essential demographic group. This is a critical omission that will have far-reaching consequences to the success of Windsor's economic development strategy, if it's executed as Public First recommends. Environmental considerations Bizarrely, there's no mention whatsoever of climate change or Windsor's efforts to meet the energy reduction targets in Windsor's 2017 Community Energy Plan:

Scoring Windsor Works If we were to grade Windsor Works, we might give Public First's report an F for delivering a report without groundbreaking new insights or recommendations, neglecting to involve local residents, and failing to reconcile the planned hospital location with the stated goal of revitalizing Downtown Windsor, especially in light of the high cost of this study. We'll be following the Council proceedings closely on Monday to see how critical Windsor's ten councillors are about this latest blueprint for our city's future. Stay tuned.

Read the 300+ page Windsor Works report

Read written submissions in the Council Agenda

Watch the livestream on Monday, February 8, at 11:00 a.m.

Click here to donate to our GoFundMe

In their own words: Members of our community comment on the issues this week

Mayor Drew Dilkens and his office go rogue in awarding the dubious Windsor Works report contract to unknown British firm. Will City Council get back control at the meeting next week? Will we see fireworks or yet another roll over? Taxpayers duped again.

There is nothing in the report that council and the good citizens don't already know. Also, I'm getting a chuckle out of the errors. May I suggest a good basic writer's reference guide? Fit to Print by Joanne Buckley is a good start.

... if the goal is economic regeneration, some cultural investment is absolutely necessary. But a minimum level of “niceness” ?.... its literally just the civic equivalent of “don’t be an asshole.”

The whole notion of attracting investment is never going to create the desired community unless the investment sought is directed. Countless research has been done over the decades as to what economic activities are required to cluster and what their ranges are, yet this data seems to be unknown.

If all the leisure activities require driving and leaving your car in acres of parking lot, it is not the desired outcome. Walk-able communities are disappearing.

I started skimming half way through because it was so poorly written. Amateurish even - so disheartening.

About Public First, the firm selected to produce Windsor Works

There is no indication Public First, a small London, UK, based policy and research company that was founded in 2016, has expertise in municipal strategy development or knowledge of Windsor’s (or Southwestern Ontario’s) landscape and community dynamics.

It is a controversial firm that specializes in developing Conservative education policy and has exceedingly close ties to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Education Secretary Michael Gove.

• The project was led by Rachel Wolf, a founding partner. Ms. Wolf co-authored the Conservative Party’s Election Manifesto in 2019. She made headlines in 2010 after the charity the then 25-year old was running was awarded an untendered £500,000 grant by Mr. Gove’s Education Department. Ms. Wolf previously worked for Mr. Gove as an advisor.

 

• The project was supported by Blair Gibbs, a cannabis policy expert. Mr. Gibbs was an advisor to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson until September 2020. Like Ms. Wolf, municipal strategy development expertise is not evident. Although currently located in Vancouver, he has spent almost his entire life in the UK.

 

• Three months before Mr. Gibbs’ five-day visit to Windsor in October 2020, Public First was awarded an untendered £840,000 contract by Mr. Johnson’s Cabinet. This was confirmed after a conflict of interest investigation by the British National Audit Office.

Were any established Canadian consultants with expertise in municipal strategy development and at least a working familiarity with Southwestern Ontario considered for Windsor's consulting project? And if so, what does Public First offer that a Canadian firm cannot provide?

Together, we can stop Windsor's worst planning mistake ever

 

Our fundraising campaign continues!

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed so generously to our GoFundMe campaign launched in February 2019. Together, you have helped us raise $93,938 to keep keep healthcare where people live. With your support, CAMPP has analyzed thousands of hours' worth of data and produced detailed reports. We've been able to ask the critical questions local elected officials have often overlooked. We know you read and are inspired by CAMPP's Sunday emails. Many of you have told us how much you appreciate CAMPP's relentless efforts. You make it possible for CAMPP to advocate for a better hospital plan. So today, we're asking you to contribute again. We are still short of our fundraising needs -- money required to pay our legal costs. And starting today, December 13, 2020, we have a holiday announcement: Two generous donors have promised a total of $3,000 in matching funds for donations to CAMPP during the next month. That means all donations towards our legal expenses (up to $3,000) will be automatically doubled. There are several ways to support our legal campaign. We accept cheques and etransfers, or you can donate to our GoFundMe. Please give what you can, and give generously. And as always, thank you for supporting this historic legal appeal. Together, we can ensure accessible healthcare for generations to come.

Click here to donate to our GoFundMe

In their own words: Members of our community comment on the issues this week

"IF you'd put pressure on WRH to change the plan, rather than continue to ram a faulty proposal through QP, maybe we'd get somewhere. Windsor needs leadership."

"If you really want a hospital, change the plan!! CAMPP can't change the plan to something this government will approve. This can only be done by Windsor Regional Hospital. Change the plan = investment. Why do "leaders" continue to blame the people? WRH and the city have the ability to get investment but they've dug in their heels and won't budge. This is not how a city is led. Windsor deserves better."

"WEEDC = City/County Slush Fund, your money people, over a quarter of a million dollars, shameful!"

"Parts of the OR are virtually new. When the last health minister was in Windsor speaking at the Ouellette site he as much stated maybe the newer part of the Ouellette site can be saved and used as day surgery but he never spoke in specifics much like this whole plan."

"In the Star today a story says Lasalle DC’s are going up by a few thousand. And they are so thankful for new development going in because without it Lasalles taxes would have to increase by 25%. That’s just scary. Does no one pay attention to this stuff? This is an acknowledged Ponzi scheme and everyone appears to be ok with it."

"So lets roll forward 10 years and assume that it is built and running, then factor in COVID my questions are, would it have the capacity to deal with the expected increase in Hospitalization’s to come, and will it be staffed well enough to deal with the scenario. In both cases I believe the answer to be NO. If you are gonna get it done, DO IT RIGHT the first time."