City of Brantford Council unanimously approved the creation of a community based working group to lead a grassroots campaign to help build the case for a new hospital facility during its Committee of the Whole, Planning and Administration meeting on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
With Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Finance, estimating that the City of Brantford will grow by approximately 38 per cent over the next 25 years, Councillor Dan McCreary’s resolution stated that it’s obvious that the “biggest issue facing our communities is a dated hospital designed to service the needs of a 1980’s Brantford and is struggling to service the current needs of a much larger population base”
While the City of Brantford has already established an interest-bearing Hospital Redevelopment Reserve Fund, which has earned over $15 million since its creation in December of 2022, and while there are proposed plans for the new hospital to be built on the Terrace Hill Street parking lot across the road from the Brantford General Hospital, there is still plenty more work to be done in order to get the new facility underway and built.
According to the resolution, the new working group is to be comprised of both elected officials and citizen representatives from the City of Brantford, County of Brant, Six Nations of the Grand River and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as one representative from the Brant Community Healthcare System.
Mayor Davis is to initially chair the group, and Councillors Mandy Samwell and Richard Carpenter were both later elected by the Committee of the Whole to join Councillor McCreary as the City’s representatives. As far as the other municipalities go, each community will choose their own elected official representatives, two from the County, one from Six Nations and one from New Credit.
The working group, on top of building the case for a new hospital facility, will soon begin the process of engaging the community, lobbying various levels of government, organizing fundraising initiatives and performing a community needs assessment within each of the four communities affected.
“‘One voice’ is a theme that runs through this. …We’ll all be on the same page, not working at cross purposes,” said McCreary. “We intend to pursue respectful advocacy which the province will see as being the community’s voice in our desire to have a new hospital. …We will be working in lockstep with the hospital folks, we will speak with one voice, and we will be providing their [the hospital’s] point of view so that we can then engage with our community and with our citizens, and make sure that we can develop an advocacy that the province cannot say no to.”
Davis said that when it comes down to it, it’s important to not only have the elected leaders of the communities lobbying for the new hospital, but the citizens as well, through lawn signs, emailing, and letter writing.
“There’s a real need for what I would call ‘grassroots lobbying’ so that more citizens can get involved,” said Davis.
While Carpenter initially started a “We Need a New Hospital Now” lawn sign campaign earlier this summer, as part of the resolution, council also directed staff to build on his program’s idea and develop a “New Hospital for Brantford” free lawn sign campaign at a maximum cost of $10,000 to be funded from the Council Priorities Reserve Fund.
Councillor John Sless said he thought the signs were a great idea and that it would visually show the province that the members of the community want and need a new hospital now.
“I know data is important, but I think the visual is going to be huge,” said Slesss. “We’ve got to put a sign on every lawn in Brantford… I think, to me, that’s imperative and that’s something that the premier can’t look the other way on. …The infrastructure in that hospital is on life support and they’ve got to come in and the work has to get done, the new hospital has to get built.”
Davis added that it was important to support what the hospital is doing and show that the four communities are showing a united front.
He said that with Brantford being one of about three or four communities in line for approval for funding construction of a new hospital facility, the competition is intense and if they get into a debate about topics such as where the new hospital should be located, the city will get bumped to the bottom of the list.
“The next critical stage is the 2025 provincial budget. If a new facility for the Brant Community Healthcare Systems is in that 2025 budget, which comes out in March or early April, then we’re well on the way to then doing the detailed design work and the letting out contracts and construction of a hospital,” said Davis. “…If the province detects there’s an ounce of division or discord in the community about the concept of the hospital moving forward, it will be dead in the water once again.”
Agreeing that they all need to do their part in communicating with their constituents, each Councillor was supportive of the new working group and its mission in advocating for a new hospital.
“We’ve needed this hospital for years. We’ve been applauded by the Premier in terms of so many things that we’ve been able to accomplish, from our due diligence with homes, and our ability to attract manufacturing and businesses, we’ve kind of been put up there in terms of what we’ve done outside of other cities,” said Councillor Gino Caputo. “… Brantford needs what we’re doing here, …and I think this is an opportunity for us as a city to move forward and really show the province who and what we are. I can’t wait for this to take place.”
After many comments of support for the committee, the vote was then carried unanimously.
