The $2-billion Windsor-Essex Acute Care Hospital project is ready to move to the next stage of planning but is also now expected to cost more.
During Windsor Regional Hospital's board meeting on Thursday, President and CEO David Musyj provided an update saying Stage 1.3 plans will be submitted to the Ministry of Health this month and will then move to Stage 2 which is detailed room-by-room drawings which are used to form the Request for Proposal document which will go out to tender in 2025.
Musyj adds that because of inflation, the project is going to be more expensive because of the time that has passed since the re-zoning application was originally approved 5-years ago. "There has been a couple of years of inflationary costs and those are expected to continue. The goal is to avoid continued large increase in pricing, but yes, definitely this project is going to be more expensive because of the time that has passed."
City council originally approved rezoning the site on County Road 42 at the 9th Concession in August 2018 but the group CAMPP – the Citizens for an Accountable Mega Hospital Planning Process – appealed the decision, putting the project on hold until it was ultimately dismissed by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) in December 2019.
In July 2020, a judge denied the group's request for an appeal of the 2019 decision that green-lit the hospital's new location. CAMPP then lost another court decision in May of 2021.
Musyj says the increase in costs is unfornate, "Arguably, we should be cutting the ribbon right now and we're not. But we are where we're at and we have had ongoing discussions with the ministry even as late as this past week and they recognize that the other projects and costs they're coming in at, that that's what we're dealing with.
Musyj didn't say how much more the project would cost but adds WRH is constantly in talks with other municipalities that are building new hospitals, including Ottawa and Mississauga. "We're forever dialoging with those who are ahead of us, Ottawa and Trillium, on how they're doing and they're doing well, but I'm so glad we're in this part of the discussion with the government and ministry on aiming towards RFP with a shovel in the ground, so that's pretty exciting stuff."
In October 2021, the Ontario government reaffirmed $9.8-million to support planning for the new state-of-the-art acute care hospital.
Construction of the new building on County Road 42 at the 9th Concession is expected to get underway in 2026 with completion in 2030.