A Commentary by Doug Draper
On a recent drive back to St. Catharines from the town of Lincoln, I glanced northward from St. Paul Street West, across snow-covered orchards and vineyards to a huge building that seems totally out of place with its surroundings.
There it is, beyond the snow-covered hedge rows and vineyards, and completely out of its surroundings. Photo by Doug Draper
As some of you may already have guessed, I’m talking about the massive, 970,000-square-foot hospital complex the Niagara Health System is building at the western end of St. Catharines’urban boundaries at a cost that will total close to $1.5 billion over the next 30 years.
That does not include the many millions of dollars more that will have to be spent on improving roads, exits off Hwy. 406 and other infrastructure needed to accommodate a major institutional complex that, according to the provincial government’s own ‘Places To Grow’ planning policies, should be located in an urban center (or at least at a site where the needed infrastructure is already in place) rather than at this ridiculous location.
Obviously, it’s too late to do anything now about the location of a complex that will, house some 375 acute care beds, and first-of-kind cancer and cardiac treatment centres for the region. Those of us who pressed for this complex to be built at a more central site in the region lost that battle more than a two years ago when the first shovels went in the ground.
For me, the location of this complex on the outskirts of west St. Catharines will forever remain a monument to the stubborn determination of Debbie Sevenpifer, the recently ousted CEO and president of the NHS, and to those municipal councillors and provincial government representatives who supported building a super hospital here against the will of many thousands of Niagara residents and of regional planners who based their objections on sound planning principles.
No, the fight for a more centrally located super hospital is history and there may be only one thing left for residents living in the central and southern parts of the region to do – annex themselves from a decade-old NHS a former Mike Harris provincial government created to amalgamate most of the hospital services in the region.
What other alternative do municipalities like Wainfleet, Port Colborne, Fort Erie, Welland and possibly even Niagara Falls have than to watch the NHS continue to implement a ‘hospital improvement plan’ Sevenpifer and company unveiled three years ago that promises to transfer more and more acute care services to hospitals in the north end and transform aging south-end hospitals into little more than long-term care facilities?
Consider that the Niagara’s regional government’s own long-term planning policy is encouraging more growth in this century to communities in central and southern parts of the region. Consider also that the NHS should have known this was the region’s policy before it barreled forward with the construction of this major health care complex in the north end, but went ahead with it anyway, with the backing of the provincial government and a majority of regional councillors.
During a marathon regional council meeting last September, south Niagara residents wait until one o’clock in the morning to learn that more than half of the councillors would not support a resolution (approved by seven local municipalities in Niagara), calling on the province to launch an investigation of the way the NHS is managing hospital services here. To pour salt on to an open wound, St. Catharines regional councillor Tim Rigby got up and vented his long-time frustration with those who wanted the new hospital complex to be built in a more central location.
“This is a St. Catharines hospital,” said Rigby at the September council meeting, “so don’t give me this nonsense that it should have been built (somewhere else).”
Well Tim, if it is a St. Catharines hospital, if you want to be parochial about it, then let the people of St. Catharines and any other residents in surrounding communities who feel they may have the most access to it pay for it and for the millions of dollars in infrastructure needed. Why should residents in south Niagara invest a penny in this place while they watch their operating, emergency and other acute care services slowly but surely disappear?
Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badeway seems to be on the right track. He has recently met with the mayors of Welland and Niagara Falls, and has left doors open to mayors in other municipalities to join him and his council in campaigning for the return of fair, accessible acute care services to Niagara’s southern tier.
Badeway may not agree with me, but sounds like the making a new health system for a growing southern tier of this region to me. And it deserves the support of the province and of all residents across this region that believe in fair access to hospital care, including Tim Rigby.
(Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
Years ago; 2006 to 2008, I squawked constantly about the location in west St. Catharines the NHS had selected to build the new hospital. To shut me up, former CEO Sevenpifer invited me to their headquarters to have a discussion and convince me I was wrong.
She insisted they had based their decision on meeting criteria within a feasibility study and had made the best choice considering it was to be basically a St. Catharines hospital and also all servicing was in place. I insisted, it sounded like the new hospital would have many regional services and therefore should be more geographically central in Niagara to provide all Niagarans equitable access. I also suggested they carry out a cost benefit analysis on services required at Fourth Ave. and those that might be necessary if it was in a location near 406 and Hgywy. 20. I even suggested land by Brock University. Sevenpifer assured me they had approached Brock, but they were not interested in selling. I find this hard to believe that Brock would not jump at the chance of having a first class, regional hospital on their campus. I also pointed out the disadvantage of the location in west St. Catharines as it had a railway track running alongside the property, about 200 ft. from where the building would be located and what the consequences could be if a train with toxic chemicals derailed, as had occured in Mississaugua in 1969.
I left that meeting realizing their views were intransigent and common sense would not prevail in them adopting a better plan for Niagara.
If they had kept an open mind and listened to sound reasoning; not just from me, but others with more expertise that were vocal; we might have had a hospital system that would work for all citizens of Niagara. They refused. Now they are stuck with a broken system that will not work for the southern tier.
Since St. Catharines constantly insisted it is basically their own community hospital then let them pay for the new clover leaf off of 406 and all the road improvements to the new St.Catharines hospital.
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Even more disconcerting then the extreme Northern location of this Hospital is the announcement that Northern Niagara has received LHIN and Ministry permission to build yet another Hospital in Grimsby.
There is no problem with their good fortune,,,good luck to them. Where the problem arises is that this is all at the expense of their Southern Tier Country Cousins.
One Niagara is a wishful myth until equal and accessible Hospital Services are restored to the South and its time for Regional Council to step up and recognize that inequities are being perpetrated.
Its time for Region to join the voice of MPP Craitor and the resolutions of seven Municipalities to investigate the Niagara Health Systems destructive policy to decimate the South under the guise of a Hospital “Improvement” Plan
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Why is she going to be highly rewarded with her million dollar severance package? In the private sector you are fired and left to scramble to re establish yourself. Remember the Ford Pinto? The company”s accountants decided it would be cheaper to settle the lawsuits than install a ten dollar part across the rear of each vehicles gas tank to lessen the chance of rupture,leading to fire. and potential death by occupants of vehicle. The accountants were right and so is Debbie with her Accounting Degree: It will be cheaper to close down Emergency rooms and settle any potential lawsuits from anyone requiring emergency room procedures. Hope I am not one of them!
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The entire hospital location selection process was shrouded in secrecy and hidden from the public. The NHS examined 23 sites one of them being regional owned land in proximity of Brock and Regional HQ. The reasons cited for the current location are simply that St. Catharines claimed ownership even though the new facility was to have a large regional component to it.
Very early on in this process, I, as many others could see the massive manipulation by St. Catharines, its municipal, regional, provincial and federal politicians of all political stripes to ensure this hospital stayed within the borders of the Garden City regardless of the consequences to the rest of Niagara. Niagara’s bully boy won the day.
My read is to not only secede from the NHS in the south but strive for full separation from the current Niagara political structure entirely, to the traditional county boundaries pre-1970. The current discussions for regional reform will lead to milk toast solutions that will not solve the many problems that exist, let alone our health care issues. The question is: are South Niagarians prepared to sacrifice some of their civic autonomy to make a cohesive political entity to manage our own affairs?
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As for next steps, we have Pat’s recommendations to Welland Council, and hopes for Regional Council support. What about Save Our Hospital lawn signs etc.? Any ideas/suggestions?
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One suggestion is EVERYONE stop any donations to the NHS.
This whole thing is political and always has been. Wonder how a tax revolt would work? Maybe we should pull an “Egypt” and take to the streets province wide. Our governments think they can do whatever they like and they’re absolutely right. We’re a bunch of apathetic slugs who are told what will be done to us and we sit and take it. We’ve gone the sign route and the polite protests and negotiations route to absolutely no avail. In fact, some of the “negotiators” for our respective towns are just NHS lackeys and I can’t believe how they’ve kept their jobs supposedly representing us. In addition, what good are meetings when nobody shows up? Unless this movement becomes coordinated province wide, we will continue to be ignored.
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If we get effective information brochures and deliver them, it should help, and then maybe more people will support protests etc.
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What about legal actions? Do we have grounds to launch a class action suit?
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Mark, it’s all been done. And done and done. The Matthews twins (Minister of Health Deb and new NHS CEO Sue) have spoken: there will be no change to the HIP. And forget the Region, even under new leadership — there are too many other serious problems to sort out for Region to want to revisit the HIP mess. Regional Council supported the P3 hospital on that site from the beginning. Mere months ago, the same Regional Council refused to call for an investigation of the NHS, despite resolutions to that effect passed by the majority of Niagara municipal councils.
Municipalities can’t afford the legal route, and class action suits take forever. In the meantime, our hospital services are disappearing every day.
As the largest hospital system in Ontario, the NHS has always too big to manage effectively. We need a hospital system designed for south/central Niagara. Let’s put our support behind Vance Badawey and Jim Diodati and Barry Sharpe, and any other south Niagara mayors who are capable of working collaboratively to produce a blueprint for change that takes the needs of the residents into account.
The time for the blame game has passed. We need leadership. Municipal healthcare committees can can serve a useful function in uniting services and assuring citizen input, but they are not effective vehicles for producing the sort of comprehensive change we need.
We need a plan, people, and soon. And, for the moment, I’m looking to these mayors to come up with one, and present it to us, the residents. If we like it, then we need to get behind it, to help make our case to the province. That’s when we get to do the protesting, the picketing, the leafleting: when we have agreed on what it is we all want for south/central Niagara.
It’s time to turn our thinking around, and stop banging our heads against the same old walls, and refighting battles we’ve lost before. And, if the Minister of Health won’t change her mind, then let’s make darn sure we change the Minister of Health.
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