Experts Speak Out

There is considerable support for CAMPP's position, both from professional experts in fields directly related to the hospital project, as well as the wider public.

Below are links to letters and articles written by experts who question the construction of a hospital on County Road 42 and the process that led to its selection from their professional points of view.  Don't just take it from us - you can read what they wrote here:

• Windsor Regional Society of Architects, one of 13 chapters of the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). The Association is dedicated to promoting and increasing the knowledge, skill and proficiency of its members, and administering the Architects Act, in order that the public interest may be served and protected. The Societies work to raise the awareness, appreciation, and understanding of architecture within their communities.

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• Sergio Bertucci, M. Arch, LEED AP argues that: "An honest, scientifically-informed and politically unbiased study needs to be completed with input from citizens, planners, and other important stakeholders.  The final plan should be ratified through public consensus, and should be devoid of covert decisions made solely by politicians, investors, and developers."

 

• Ed Cornies, retired urban and regional planner for the County of Essex, resident of Kingsville, wrote: "Locating the new hospital in a remote undeveloped location out by the airport will only add to the ugly suburban sprawl that already characterizes the east side of the metropolitan area and result in the long-term loss of a large number of medically related jobs now located in the central city to the suburban east side." 

 

• Ken Greenberg, urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto (under 3 mayors beginning with David Crombie) and currently Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For over four decades, he has played a critical consulting role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe including a number of situations in Windsor and in neighbouring Detroit.  

 

• Stephen Kapusta MCIP, RPP, former City of Windsor Planner (2001 - 2011); Transit Windsor, Public Works, Transportation Planning and Planning Policy. He eloquently explains why, “From my point of view as a planner, I do not feel that the location of the proposed Hospital meets or exceeds the guidance of Windsor’s Official Plan.”

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• James Laird MD, retired Windsor surgeon, questions the wisdom of rationalizing two full-service facilities into one to serve the region, the affordability of the funding required for the project, and the closure of two good hospitals.

 

• Sean Micallef, a native Windsorite who spent the first 25 years of his life in the city. He lives and works in Toronto today, teaching urban
  civics and writing about cities. Windsor is the place he comes back to in order to
  understand the city he now lives in, as well as the many cities he visits. Micallef
  cofounded the Canadian magazine Spacing that explores what makes Canadian cities
  great and how they can overcome the challenges that face them.

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• John Sewell:  Former Mayor of Toronto, long time Councillor, author, urban activist and Member of the Order of Canada, speaking about the role that hospitals play in cities and the problems that come with consolidation and construction of “mega” facilities in Ontario.

 

• Rick Spencer, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., Consulting Engineer for both short-listed sites.   His letter indicates that numbers he submitted were not the same ones used to determine the costs of servicing the two sites, and that the winning site has insufficient Hydro capacity but that this was not included in the site's cost calculations.  He showed that the site on County Road 42 will require $26 million in road improvements for the road on which the site sits, while the roads to the runner-up site require zero improvements.  This major cost was not in any way included in the site selection calculations, and Windsor taxpayers will be left footing the bill.

 

• Windsor Regional Society of Architects, one of 13 chapters of the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). The Association is dedicated to promoting and increasing the knowledge, skill and proficiency of its members, and administering the Architects Act, in order that the public interest may be served and protected. The Societies work to raise the awareness, appreciation, and understanding of architecture within their communities.

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