The Ottawa Hospital is getting a cash injection of up to $9 million from the provincial government as it enters its next stage of planning for the new Civic campus.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott made the funding announcement Thursday morning in Ottawa, accompanied by Ottawa-area MPPs Jeremy Roberts and Merrilee Fullerton, who also serves as the province’s minister of long-term care.
The province, under the previous Liberal government, had provided the Ottawa Hospital with an initial planning grant of $3 million for the new Civic facility in late 2016. Elliott said on Thursday that the Ontario government’s renewed investment will bump the hospital’s total planning grant so far to $12 million.
“Building a new hospital is an opportunity of a lifetime. And for our wonderful staff and the community we serve, today is really a dream come true,” Dr. Jack Kitts, president and CEO of the Ottawa Hospital, said of the new funding. “For Ottawa, this means that we are building one of the most significant infrastructure projects our community has ever seen.
“Today’s announcement is a giant leap forward into 21st-century health care.”
The current Civic hospital officially opened in 1924, according to the Ottawa Hospital’s website.
The Ottawa Hospital expects the five-stage planning process for the new $2-billion Civic campus to take five years and the construction of the new facility to take another five years. That timeline could see the new hospital open sometime in late 2026 or 2027.
The new campus will be located in the northeast corner of the Central Experimental Farm, near the intersection of Carling Avenue and Preston Street, and bordered by Prince of Wales Drive and Maple Lane. That’s a handful of blocks east down Carling Avenue from the current Civic campus, located just southwest of the downtown core.
The Ontario government regulates the planning process and must provide approval for each of the planning stages before the next phase can begin. In a news release, The Ottawa Hospital said the new provincial funding will allow it to move to the second phase of planning.
“During the second stage, the hospital will develop the ‘functional program’ for the new campus,” the release said. “This builds on the work done earlier in the project and adds more detail about the programs that will be housed at the new campus, including space requirements, major equipment and staffing.
“At the same time, work will move forward in meeting the requirements for rezoning the site put forward by the City of Ottawa.”
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In its first budget in April, the Progressive Conservative government confirmed the Ottawa Hospital would get a slice of the $17 billion worth of capital grants the province would dedicate over the next decade “to modernize and increase capacity at hospitals and address urgent issues.”
The Ottawa Hospital was listed in the budget document among a dozen Ontario hospitals with redevelopment plans in the works.
On Thursday, Elliott said the centre is the only hospital in the Champlain region that provides “complex, specialized services” including neuro and vascular surgery. The Ottawa Hospital is also a teaching hospital and the regional adult trauma centre for eastern Ontario.
“The Ottawa Hospital is such an important part of this community,” Elliott said on Thursday. “When completed, the new state-of-the-art facility will reflect the high-quality, specialized care that is delivered at this hospital and will create more capacity and reduce wait times.
“Patients can expect to benefit from expanded services for emergency care, inpatient care and specialized regional programs such as trauma, neurosciences and vascular surgery.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly cited ending hallway health care as a “top priority” for his government.
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