Information about Oshawa's submission for the New Durham Hospital site was kept confidential until this morning's Special Oshawa Council meeting.
The public was not informed until today that there were actually TWO OSHAWA Simcoe St. N. sites proposed...Site 1 at Britannia W and Site 2 just north of the 407 (see 2 slides below from Consultant, Capital Hill's presentation to Council today --and for full PowerPoint see here https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/resources/LakeridgeHealthSubmissionReview_Accessible.pdf )
October 7, 2021 OSHAWA submitted TWO SITES to the Lakeridge Health Independent Selection Committee.
October 16, 2021, only one week later, Mayor Carter and Council learned Oshawa's submission would not advance to Stage 2 of the selection process.
January 6, 2022 Lakeridge Health announced that the Whitby site south of Hwy 407, west of Hwy 412 was selected as the preferred choice.
Today Oshawa Mayor and almost all Councillors had lots to say about pressing the Lakeridge Board of Trustees for a reconsideration of the new Durham Hospital site selection process.
There were a few interesting perspectives. One was that the Oshawa Airport is the City's, the City pays for it's upkeep, so how does Whitby use the proximity to it to secure the winning bid. A lot of talk about the lack of fairness, transparency, and too tight timeframe to consider the submissions
It's actually not clear if there will be additional costs with the City of Oshawa now voting to proceed down the grievance road and object to the Lakeridge Selection Committee's decision favoring Whitby's Lakeridge/Hwy 407 site.
There were at least 4 Oshawa Council members promoting SITE 1 at Simcoe St N/Britannia Rd W. 63 acres owned by Ontario Tech U for the synergy of a teaching hospital like Hamilton's McMaster.
SITE 2 is the one north of Hwy 407. 60 acres owned by the Province (MT0 surplus land) that I made a Declaration of Interest at the start of the meeting about and therefore did not ask questions or vote.
Below is the Mayor's Motion, with the four additional motions added to it.
Below also is a page that I screen captured today from the Town of Whitby website.
Note where I drew in Oshawa's two sites -one with a blue line inside and one with a purple line outside Whitby's map of where Whitby has circled the 10km radius around Lakeridge hospital in Oshawa.
It seems to show how:
1) Whitby is not accurate in drawing the 10km radius; and
2) Whitby is unaware that Oshawa was proposing its SITE 2 on Simcoe St. north of Hwy 407.
The fact Oshawa Mayor and Council members now are claiming that information was not transparent, I find a bit of perplexing considering the public knew well where the Pickering and Whitby proposed sites were. Both municipalities promoted them long before the final submission date in October, 2021. But Oshawa's Mayor for over two years wanted to keep Oshawa's proposed sites secret.
(See video clip from the September 9, 2019 Development Services Committee meeting below - also, if interested, you can listen here STARTING AT 2:48 to the only public discussion among the Mayor and Councillors about a site for the new hospital prior to today's January 31, 2022 Special Council meeting.
Now one may wonder if this 'cards close to my chest' strategy of Mayor Carter's not only backfired, but also seems at odds with Oshawa complaining about an unfair process. Were the Mayors and Councils of the two other competing municipalities wrong to share with the public the location they believed the best site for the new Durham hospital? If not, Oshawa might be prudent to reexamine its strategy before calling foul. Note that Oshawa Mayor and Council not sharing with the public where they believe the best site is until after the site was awarded to Whitby might be considered a strategic misstep, like coming late to the party.
There is also the fact that Oshawa, in promoting TWO SITES together, made an odd and confusing submission. Why would the City or the Consultant not see how this made the Oshawa's submission problematic, basically saying here are two sites that are the best site. Why didn't Ontario Tech put in its own bid?
I see political attention grabbing and unfortunate animosity percolating. So let's hope politics doesn't mess with the ultimate goal of getting the best result for future health care in Durham Region.
See presentation slide here https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/resources/LakeridgeHealthSubmissionReview_Accessible.pdf
The public was not informed until today that there were actually TWO OSHAWA Simcoe St. N. sites proposed...Site 1 at Britannia W and Site 2 just north of the 407 (see 2 slides below from Consultant, Capital Hill's presentation to Council today --and for full PowerPoint see here https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/resources/LakeridgeHealthSubmissionReview_Accessible.pdf )
October 7, 2021 OSHAWA submitted TWO SITES to the Lakeridge Health Independent Selection Committee.
October 16, 2021, only one week later, Mayor Carter and Council learned Oshawa's submission would not advance to Stage 2 of the selection process.
January 6, 2022 Lakeridge Health announced that the Whitby site south of Hwy 407, west of Hwy 412 was selected as the preferred choice.
Today Oshawa Mayor and almost all Councillors had lots to say about pressing the Lakeridge Board of Trustees for a reconsideration of the new Durham Hospital site selection process.
There were a few interesting perspectives. One was that the Oshawa Airport is the City's, the City pays for it's upkeep, so how does Whitby use the proximity to it to secure the winning bid. A lot of talk about the lack of fairness, transparency, and too tight timeframe to consider the submissions
It's actually not clear if there will be additional costs with the City of Oshawa now voting to proceed down the grievance road and object to the Lakeridge Selection Committee's decision favoring Whitby's Lakeridge/Hwy 407 site.
There were at least 4 Oshawa Council members promoting SITE 1 at Simcoe St N/Britannia Rd W. 63 acres owned by Ontario Tech U for the synergy of a teaching hospital like Hamilton's McMaster.
SITE 2 is the one north of Hwy 407. 60 acres owned by the Province (MT0 surplus land) that I made a Declaration of Interest at the start of the meeting about and therefore did not ask questions or vote.
Below is the Mayor's Motion, with the four additional motions added to it.
Below also is a page that I screen captured today from the Town of Whitby website.
Note where I drew in Oshawa's two sites -one with a blue line inside and one with a purple line outside Whitby's map of where Whitby has circled the 10km radius around Lakeridge hospital in Oshawa.
It seems to show how:
1) Whitby is not accurate in drawing the 10km radius; and
2) Whitby is unaware that Oshawa was proposing its SITE 2 on Simcoe St. north of Hwy 407.
The fact Oshawa Mayor and Council members now are claiming that information was not transparent, I find a bit of perplexing considering the public knew well where the Pickering and Whitby proposed sites were. Both municipalities promoted them long before the final submission date in October, 2021. But Oshawa's Mayor for over two years wanted to keep Oshawa's proposed sites secret.
(See video clip from the September 9, 2019 Development Services Committee meeting below - also, if interested, you can listen here STARTING AT 2:48 to the only public discussion among the Mayor and Councillors about a site for the new hospital prior to today's January 31, 2022 Special Council meeting.
Now one may wonder if this 'cards close to my chest' strategy of Mayor Carter's not only backfired, but also seems at odds with Oshawa complaining about an unfair process. Were the Mayors and Councils of the two other competing municipalities wrong to share with the public the location they believed the best site for the new Durham hospital? If not, Oshawa might be prudent to reexamine its strategy before calling foul. Note that Oshawa Mayor and Council not sharing with the public where they believe the best site is until after the site was awarded to Whitby might be considered a strategic misstep, like coming late to the party.
There is also the fact that Oshawa, in promoting TWO SITES together, made an odd and confusing submission. Why would the City or the Consultant not see how this made the Oshawa's submission problematic, basically saying here are two sites that are the best site. Why didn't Ontario Tech put in its own bid?
I see political attention grabbing and unfortunate animosity percolating. So let's hope politics doesn't mess with the ultimate goal of getting the best result for future health care in Durham Region.
See presentation slide here https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/resources/LakeridgeHealthSubmissionReview_Accessible.pdf
