Signs of a long weekend
And thoughts about the new hospital and our need to raise money
Big boats, long Dooher’s lineups, and backed up bridge traffic — just a typical Saturday
At last, the photo opp we’ve been waiting for
Premier Doug Ford is expected to come to town sometime this week to announce the government's funding for a new hospital, get his picture taken, and brag about the plan.
To be fair, this is the biggest news to hit this area in a long, long time. It will result in a health-care facility that will serve us and our children for decades and it will create hundreds of good-paying jobs for highly educated workers.
“This announcement is a testament to our collective efforts and unwavering dedication to our community's well-being,” said Bob Crate, mayor of Trent Hills. “We look forward to watching the progress of the new hospital and seeing all the incredible benefits it will bring to our community."
But before we focus completely on the future, it would be wise to remember how long it’s taken us to get here.
MPP David Piccini crowed in media interviews and on Facebook – “Promise made, promise kept.”
As a professional word herder, I appreciate a good slogan and catchphrase, but this one stretches credulity. For the past five years or so, the Ford government has bobbed, weaved, ducked, played deaf, and just plain ignored this community’s request for a new hospital, even though the need for it was recognized by the health ministry, medical staff, and patients.
If the Ford government had listened earlier the new hospital would be almost completed. Best guess is construction will take about eight years if all goes well, putting a completion date now somewhere in 2033-34.
Finally, a few months back in a private discussion with Jeff Hohenkerk, CEO of Campbellford Memorial Hospital, Ford apparently said that us getting a new facility was a matter of when, not if. I was skeptical that this counted as a firm promise, but I’m glad it turned out that it was.
So, on Thursday in the 2025 budget the government announced a $2.5 million planning grant to get the project to the start line and Piccini has said more money will flow as work progresses.
But we need to be clear about what he’s promising to build. It’s not really a hospital, it’s an empty shell that we can turn into a hospital.
The province funds 90 per cent of hospital construction costs of the four walls and the roof. The remaining 10 per cent, along with 100 per cent of medical equipment and furnishings, must be funded locally. That means what Ford is promising doesn’t include any beds, chairs, operating rooms, CT scanners, or other equipment needed in a modern hospital.
From the moment years back when I realized how the funding system works in Ontario, I have felt it is inequitable and inefficient. The best way to pay for public services is a fair tax system. Let the rich pay through their taxes, not by slapping their names on a wing. Instead, we’ve created a whole new business fundraising for hospital necessities with lotteries and a plethora of events.
The current system might have been sensible 60 years ago when a hospital only had some beds, bedpans, and a few scalpels. Now, the high cost of the latest technology makes it hard for poorer and rural areas to outfit their hospitals; they simply don’t have the rich businesses and families to turn to.
I lived in Scarborough for 30 years and as facilities in the poorest part of Toronto, its hospitals always struggled to get the equipment they needed. A few years ago, the Scarborough Health Network faced this problem head on with a campaign called Love Scarborough. One of its headlines said: “We’ve been left behind for decades, leaving us with aging hospitals and cramped procedure rooms.”
Its main taglines were: “We do more than anyone thought possible. With less than anyone could imagine. Imagine what we could do with more.”
That sentiment captures the feeling at Campbellford Memorial in recent years too. Now, the hard work of raising money to build the Campus of Care and a new hospital begins.
Over the next decade, the community will have to raise tens of millions of dollars to support construction and outfitting the new facility. From our point of view, the main person responsible for our hospital will be John Russell, CEO of the Campbellford Memorial Hospital Foundation, not Doug Ford.
Be sure you’re sitting down before you read the next sentence.
The project is likely to cost 10 to 20 times more than the $23 million spent on the Sunny Life Recreation & Wellness Centre.
The municipality will also have the cost of extending sewer and water lines west along Bridge Street to the new site, which currently sits just outside the boundary of Campbellford. Trent Hills is developing a new official plan that is expected to add that land to the urban area.
The exact amount that the community will have to raise isn’t known right now, because the final design is just being started and no one has a firm idea of the cost. But we can get a glimpse by looking at other hospitals currently under construction.
For example, the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation, has raised $23 million of the $30 million it has pledged for the new facility in Picton. That hospital is smaller than the new one we will have here, since it only has 23 beds, compared to the 50 planned for our new facility. CMH currently has 38 beds.
Another example is the fundraising being done for the new hospital in Collingwood. The Collingwood General and Marine Hospital Foundation has pledged $100 million for a 132-bed hospital. Total cost of the new hospital, with construction to start in 2028 and be completed by 2033, has not been determined.
So, it’s a good guess that the Campbellford Memorial Hospital Foundation will be looking to raise between $30 million and $100 million for our new facility.
I’ve been told it could become Chamberlain Memorial Hospital if I have a spare $25 million or so to kick in. I’ve countered with an offer to buy a couple bike racks. Won’t even insist on a plaque.
It will be nice to have the Premier come and celebrate this new phase in the life of Trent Hills, but he’ll be back home in Etobicoke or at his Muskoka cottage, while we spend the next decade or more paying for what he finally started.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories on my website here.
The local politicians of the service area must get behind John Russell to make this new hospital a reality. Thanks to Jim Curle for donating the land.
Well said Art! You’re bang on about John Russell, the hospital’s most relentlessly tireless cheerleader!