Municipalities In The South End Of Niagara Should Have A New Hospital Of Their Own
A News Commentary by Doug Draper
Posted August 20th, 2025 on Niagara At Large!
The new Niagara Health Hospital – questionably being referred to as the ‘South Niagara Hosptial’ – under construction in Niagara Falls.
With the exception of Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati’s own council and that of Pelham Mayor Marvin Junkin, it seems that four other municipalities in Niagara’s south end – Welland, Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Wainfleet – are so far being less than committal when it comes to paying up, what between all six of them, would total $72.5 million for the construction of a new hospital in Niagara Falls.
To the four south Niagara municipalities holding out, Diodati, who also serves as co-chair for the new hospital’s fund raising campaign, was recently quoted in a local newspaper saying; “I’m just pleading with everybody to prioritize this. Give what you can now with a commitment to help out more as you’re able because (this hospital) will touch every one of our lives at some point, and we’re going to be glad that we did it.”
I would submit that this is easy for Diodati to say when the hospital in question is being built in his municipalities while municipalities in the south end of Niagara have, for more than a decade now, seen services in their hospitals reduced and, in many cases, eliminated completely.
NIagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati is urging municipalities in the region’s south end to pay a share of the cost for construction a new hospital in his municipality.
When it comes to hospital services in Niagara, it is so far looking like – depending on where in the region one lives – they are now touching and will continue to touch some lives more than others.
Niagara Health, the system established 26 years ago by the former Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris to amalgamate hospital services in Niagara, repeatedly refers to the hospital now under construction in Niagara Falls as the “South Niagara Hospital” but I have barely talked to or heard from anyone in Niagara’s south end who sees it that way.
All many of them know is that with the opening of another new super-hospital in west St. Catharines more than decade ago, their long-time hospitals in Welland, Port Colborne and Fort Erie have been hollowed out over the years and over the past two years, Urgent Care Centres in Port Colborne and Fort Erie have had their hours and, as of this summer, even their days of operation reduced.
So maybe the Mayor of Niagara Falls and Niagara Health should stop pressing municipalities in the south end of the region to pay out millions of dollars – in amounts per municipality that would add up to around $340 per resident – for the hospital under construction in Niagara Falls and go to Premier Ford for the money instead.
After all, if Doug Ford is so willing to blow countless tens-of-billions of dollars of our tax money on new highways, including a tunnel under a stretch of Hwy. 401 in the GTA and a twin bridge for the Garden City Skyway in St. Catharines, what is another $72.5 million for a hospital expected to cost a total of $3.6 billion to build and open?
Ontario Premier Doug Ford (left) with Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati a few years ago at the site for the new hospital now under construction in Niagara Falls. Maybe Diodati should be pressing Ford for more money to fund the hospital build.
Surely it is the least Ford could do after that generous endorsement Diodati, along with Welland Mayor Frank Campion and St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe gave him during the last provincial election.
And finally, instead of spending so many tens-of-billions of dollars on highways systems to accommodate ever more trucks and cars, how about spending a little bit of that money on a real new hospital for the people of south Niagara?
The people of south Niagara, where populations are growing, should have just as much access to leading-edge hospital services as people living in or near St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.
(Doug Draper is a veteran jouranlist and publisher of Niagara At Large who lives in the north end of Niagara.)
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Cheers to you, Doug, for a most pointed and pertinent comment! We’re all sick to the back teeth of the games being played by the province over provision of hospital services. Enough, already.
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