The City of Windsor is going to use provincial funding to look at opportunities for health and research and development investments near the new regional hospital.
Windsor-Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie announced Tuesday a $50,000 investment from the province to support economic and long-term growth, while the city announced it will contribute $100,000 in funding, with all the money being used to support the creation of a Health and Research and Development District master plan.
The plan will examine coordinated land use, infrastructure, development phasing, and investment attraction around the Fancsy Family Hospital and the development land near Windsor Airport, around Cabana Road East and the 9th Concession.
Windsor’s Executive Director of Economic Development Matthew Johnson says they have five different pieces of land ranging in size that could be used for health and research and development investment opportunities.
“This ties into the strategy around the types of companies that we would like to attract and the types of companies that would make sense to have within that radius,” he says. “Within our airport lands there is more of a heavy manufacturing focus. We saw Minth make a huge investment recently in our community. Now as we look at uses closer to the hospital, we want to make sure they’re complementary to that investment that’s being made.”
Johnson says this is also one of the key recommendations in the Windsor Works report.
“We have a number of recommendations tied to our LIFT strategy—Local, Infrastructure, Future Economy, and Talent. One of the key recommendations in that report is around the development of a health and R&D master plan. This work allows us to execute on that,” he says.
Johnson says they hope to have the master plan completed by the end of the year for council’s consideration.
“I think our focus right now is completing that master plan exercise. Understanding what types of companies make the most sense there. Obviously, leveraging the work the provincial government has done to help diversify companies across the province, as well as the federal government in terms of the trade agreements with new countries across the world,” he says.
The provincial funding is through the Rural Ontario Development (ROD) program, a $20 million investment by the province.