While it seems the Ministry of Health is ready to move forward on planning for a new Groves Memorial Community Hospital, exact timelines may be a while away.
On Sept. 22 Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott and local officials met at Queen’s Park with senior Ministry of Health staff to receive a “status update briefing” on planning for the new Groves hospital.
After the June 12 provincial election, Arnott requested the briefing from Ministry of Health to demonstrate his ongoing interest in the project.
“We were very well received by ministry staff, and the meeting was a positive one. The planning process continues,” Arnott said.
The meeting was also attended by Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, Centre Wellington CAO Andy Goldie, Groves Hospital Building Committee chair Gord Feniak, and Groves president and CEO Jerome Quenneville.
During the meeting Arnott acknowledged the role of the council and staff of both the Township of Centre Wellington and the County of Wellington.
“They have been extremely supportive of this project from the beginning, and we want to do all that we can to ensure our hospital project continues to move forward,” Arnott said afterwards.
When the Ontario Legislature resumes sitting next month, Arnott intends to follow up with the new Minister of Health, Eric Hoskins, to ensure he is kept up to date on the hospital proposal and to continue to solicit the minister’s support.
At the Sept. 22 Centre Wellington council meeting, Ross-Zuj noted she’d spent the day at the Ontario Legislature in consultative meetings regarding the construction of the new hospital.
She too considered it a successful meeting with the ministry staff.
“There’s a very positive message on how we are going to move forward. It was time to get definitive answers as to the timelines,” said Ross-Zuj.
She added it always seems the project seems to be close to approaching deadlines and something should be happening, then it gets pushed back.
“This was a good day for all of us to face each other and to get commitments as to where this project is going and the potential timelines,” she said.
“It was very positive how we are going to move forward on this project.”
However when later asked about potential deadlines, Ross-Zuj said, “we talked about the potential deadlines about moving forward and the ministry is really looking forward to moving collaboratively with us to move this project forward.”
She added, “Even the information that the ministry is ready to move forward with this is a good sign for us.” As to exact dates, the mayor said “that’s a tough one – we’ll never get that.”
For more information visit http://www.gmch.ca.
