Mr. Speaker, the Civic Hospital is almost a century old, so old that its CEO said it is under constant repair and maintenance.
“[D]espite our efforts with the ongoing patchwork, we have parts of the hospital that are permanently closed. They are, literally, too unsafe to use”. He added, “with a modern facility they could save more lives and limit more suffering”.
After studying 12 potential locations for a new building, the hospital told then minister John Baird that the best place was right across the street, using less than 10% of the Experimental Farm land, with plenty of time for scientists to transition to the remaining 90%.
Mr. Baird did the right thing. He fought for a hospital in his home town. If the new government thinks there is a better location, it should tell us where. Instead of attacking a great champion of our community, John Baird, we should all focus together on building a new and better hospital for all our people.