Barbara Patrocinio

Reporter

It seems that Durham region will have its long-expected new hospital in Whitby after all.

Premier Ford and Minister Sylvia Jones made the announcement Thursday at a press conference in Oshawa.

Ford confirmed the $3 million planning grant to get construction started on the new hospital in Whitby, even though it didn't appear in this year’s provincial budget.

Now, the hospital is set to be built along a “multi-phased expansion” of medical services in the region that will provide more than 300 new hospital beds.

“We are absolutely building a hospital in Whitby,” Jones said.

The minister said the project can now start community consultation, and that the new hospital should be ready for use in about 10 years.

 she was told yesterday that there would be an announcement happening at Lakeridge House, the region’s health system and hospital network, in Oshawa, but wasn’t informed about what the topic would be about.

“I was skeptical when the announcement took place. I was driving back from Niagara on the Lake and listening to it, and now I’m honestly so excited about it,” Roy said.

“I'm very excited for our community, and not just for Whitby, but for Durham as a whole, because that announcement wasn't just about the hospital, it was about care across our community,” she added.

The “multi-phased expansion” announced this Thursday also includes a new post-acute care center in Pickering “to connect more patients and their families to rehabilitation and recovery supports” and the re-development of the Bowmanville Hospital, which will double the hospital's capacity by adding 32 new beds, and a new emergency department.

The hospital, which will be south of Highway 407, west of Highway 412, east of Lake Ridge Road and north of Highway 7/Winchester Road, will be the only trauma centre between Toronto and Kingston and will serve residents across Durham Region.

The Whitby’s hospital saga was a turbulent one.

The Ford government has been asked repeatedly by Roy and other local councillours to give Lakeridge Health the $3 million planning grant for the new hospital in the region, claiming the fast pace in which its population was growing would make it impossible for its current health system to provide support to all residents.

Durham, which is the easternmost region of the Greater Toronto Area, encompasses eight municipalities: Uxbridge, Pickering, Ajax, Brock, Scugog, Whitby, Oshawa, and Clarington.

Their population is set to double from about 680,000 people to 1.2 million by 2041, according to municipal projections, and its health network is already operating at capacity.

Nowadays, Lakeridge Health operates at 105 per cent of the funded capacity of 886 beds. By 2041, it would need to add 1,793 beds, which more than doubles the current count.

A statement from Lakeridge Health welcomed the news. “Our rapidly growing and diverse population will be able to receive exceptional and specialized care close to home in a safe and timely manner. It also means more jobs in the health-care sector for our community and will help us recruit and retain additional talented clinicians and staff,” it reads.

The Ford government promised to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031, which would be an average of 150,000 new housing starts every year, or 12,500 per month. Whitby’s share on this count would be to build 18,000 new units by 2031.

Other communities in the Durham region will also expand, with Clarington and Pickering each having a goal of 13,000 homes, and Ajax and Oshawa having committed respectively to 17,000 and 23,000 new units.

Two years ago, the location for the hospital was chosen by an independent expert panel of former hospital, health-care and development executives from outside the Durham Region, but soon after that, all conversations regarding the building stalled.

This prompted a different move by Mayor Roy in early February: she launched a campaign to pressure the province to bring a new hospital to her community, in which about 4,000 residents from all over the region signed a letter asking the premier to take action and shared a personal story about why the new hospital would be important to them.

Awards such as gym memberships and even an Apple watch were made available for a prize draw to encourage the population to engage, a spokesperson for the mayor later said in a statement.

Whitby launches campaign advocating for new hospital in Durham Region

At the time, Ford  slammed the campaign, and even raised questions about its legality.

“I don’t even know if it’s legal,” Ford said at the time.

“She is asking for emails, collecting data and god knows for what. Maybe the integrity commissioner should be looking into ‘Are politicians allowed to offer gifts if they get your email?’ It’s really unbelievable (...) Holding a lottery, that if you give me your name and email address, you get a free gym membership or free iPhone watch or you get all these little treats… I don’t know, you can ask the minister. I don’t think that’s proper,” the premier said.

But in the end, this seems to be water over the bridge.

 that she had texted the premier earlier this Thursday to thank him after hearing the announcement and asked for the opportunity of setting up a meeting, to which the premier promptly replied confirming he would like to set it up.

“This is great, we are definitely moving forward,” Roy said.

She explained that now the first thing to do is to focus on working together with Lakeridge Health to make sure that Whitby gets the land to build the hospital, which currently belongs to the Ministry of Transportation, transferred.

Roy said that the ministry has agreed to sell the 50 acres of land to the town at market value if the provincial government agrees to pay for the new hospital. At the time, the Transportation Minister was Caroline Mulroney, so Roy feels that it is important that these conversations continue with the current minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria.

The Ministry of Transportation didn't reply to a question about if changes would be implemented or if the agreement made with Caroline Mulroney would stay in place.

for the new hospital would see the province funding 90 per cent of the construction costs and 100 per cent of the planning costs, there are still 10 per cent for the construction that needs to be raised through a local campaign, Roy said.

Finally, there will also be some needs that will be discussed with the Ministry of Transportation regarding the area’s growing community.

“We need to make sure that people can move through our community.  And some of that's like from our 407 to and through our Glen area with our Highway 12,” Roy said.

The current timeline for patients to have access to the new hospital is in 10 years from now.

Ford confirmed the $3 million planning grant to get construction started on the new hospital in Whitby.

Long-awaited Whitby hospital gets green light with $3M grant

Read this for free.