Work still underway to pinpoint location for Waterloo region's new hospital

The work to decide where to put a new hospital in Waterloo region has been delayed for an unspecified period of time, the chair of the site selection panel says.

"The next few months, and I'm not being specific deliberately, we'll be making our decision," Carl Zehr said in an interview with CBC News.

"Then we will pass that [decision] onto the joint committee and they, in turn, will pass that information onto the two hospital boards, and then they will make their decision at that point."

The Ontario government announced in April 2022 it had approved a $5-million planning grant for a new hospital in the region. It will be a joint venture between St. Mary's General Hospital and Grand River Hospital.

The site selection committee put out a call for call for land proposal submissions in October and five locations were received by Nov. 16. The panel was expected to make a decision by the end of 2023, but that did not happen.

Zehr, also Kitchener's former mayor, said he could say why there has been a delay in their decision, but explained it was not due to the site selection panel members.

"Any delay is something you don't like to see," Zehr said. "The panel has been very good in terms of making sure that they are available within the reasonable timeframes." 

3 sites move on

Three of the five prospective sites made it through the first stage of the selection panel's "mandatory criteria." 

The three locations will then be ranked in Stage 2 against the panel's "evaluated criteria" and the panel will then put forward a top pick and an alternate, which was supposed to happen at the end of 2023. 

Zehr explained that from there, their recommendations won't necessarily be adopted by the joint committee or hospital boards.

"These sorts of things don't happen without differences of opinion," he said. "But I'm hoping that the hospitals will accept the recommendation from the panel."  

Zehr said that even after the site has been finalized, the hospital won't be operational for approximately 10 years.  

The length of time it will take the joint committee, or the two hospital boards, to make their decision based on the site selection panel's recommendations is unknown to the public. Dayna Giorgio, a spokesperson for St. Mary's General Hospital, said they're unable to disclose this information.

Giorgio pointed to the project's website, which says, "In order to protect the fairness and integrity of the process, the hospitals will not be communicating with stakeholders about the process until it is complete."

Once a new hospital is built, two existing hospital sites in Kitchener and Waterloo will be repurposed:

• The midtown Kitchener-Waterloo hospital is expected to become an ambulatory and urgent care centre.
• The Freeport campus of Grand River Hospital would be expanded to increase rehabilitation capacity.