Putting mega-hospital near airport wrong choice for Windsor, critic says

As Windsor waits to learn the exact location for a proposed mega-hospital, one critic says that the city is making the wrong choice for its long-term health if the new facility ends up being built outside of the core.

David Musyj, the president of Windsor Regional Hospital, confirmed to CBC News yesterday that the proposed site for the mega-hospital is "in the neighbourhood" of County Road 42 and the 9th Concession.

The public will learn the precise location of this site later today. The provincial government has still not given final approval to the project.

• New Windsor-Essex mega-hospital to be built near airport

But from what Musyj has said, it is clear that the plan is to put the new hospital in between the city and the county.

While a number of local politicians feel that this area puts the hospital in a place where Windsor and Essex County residents can both benefit, not everyone is pleased to see it so far from the central part of the city.

Shane Mitchell of the Citizens for an Accountable Megahospital Planning Process said that building the hospital in this vicinity means that Windsor is turning its back on a long-term opportunity.

"We've seen rust belt cities and cities across North America, alike, making great strides with 'meds and eds' in their downtown cores," he told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning on Thursday.

"And that's the idea that you capitalize on your medical and education centres because these are sectors that are generally static to the region. These are things [that] unlike an automotive plant that can pick up and leave to Mexico, these are places that aren't going anywhere, generally."

Mitchell said cities are seeing the potential for these sectors to revitalize their cores.

"What we see here in Windsor is that we're not really doing that, we're kind of going in the opposite direction, moving the mass of the hospital services far outside of the city centre," he said.