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LETTER: Fixing GGH is province's job, not city's

'Rather, the city and citizens should push the government to do their job and fix the situation at Guelph General,' reader says
20181204 Guelph General Hospital Sign KA
Guelph General Hospital.

GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor from reader James Smith in response to LETTER: Health care is job of province, not local council published Jan. 3.

Judy Brisson’s letter pointing out that Guelph General Hospital’s overcrowding is a job for the province and not for the city was spot on. As she points out, a new hospital isn’t necessarily a way to fix the situation either, even were Guelph to get some of the province’s promised money for 'health-care facilities.' New hospitals are billion-dollar projects. Mississauga’s is reported to be over $3 billion! Despite what Alta Greenway wrote on Dec. 29, the "perfect setting" for a new hospital at the former Ontario Reformatory (OR) is well-intentioned but misguided.

A hospital in the OR has many flaws. Firstly, the ongoing Heritage District Study, not to mention the potential for preserving natural habitats and for recreation. The OR is isolated from the vast majority of the city’s population, with limited road and transit access. Additionally, the city’s planned growth is south, not northeast. A hospital at the OR would inconvenience thousands of patients, staff and visitors, requiring tens, if not hundreds, of millions in new infrastructure, paid for by the city, not the province.

Pressing the province to do something about the General Hospital should be a priority of a concerted lobbying effort by business, cultural and civic leaders. Regrettably, unlike earlier renovations to the Guelph General Hospital, we lack a powerful cabinet minister or a back-bench member of the present government to lobby on our behalf. To address this lack of a voice in government, lobby efforts should include government MPPs from the surrounding ridings.

Here we need to be cautious and consider the example of Burlington from the 2010s. Burlington pressed for a renovation of their old hospital. The province agreed in 2012, but Burlington agreed to a 2/3 share of the $120 million renovation. Letting the province off the hook meant a special property tax levy Burlingtonians have been paying for at least a decade.

What would such a property tax levy look like today? $200 million? $300 million? Facing inflation pressures and negative budget impacts from Bill 23, in addition to approved major projects like the central library and south end recreation centre, are we prepared to enter into decades of further tax increases for a hospital? Does Guelph have the capacity to also pay for a quarter-billion-dollar hospital renovation or a billion for a hospital just to let the province off the hook?

Rather, the city and citizens should push the government to do their job and fix the situation at Guelph General. Additionally, the two opposition parties should be engaged to make the situation at Guelph General an issue now and part of any NDP or Liberal platform three years hence. Were it me, I wouldn’t bother with the Green party because whatever is decided, their leader will claim it was his idea all along.

James Smith

Guelph