Province donates $3 million for Grace Hospital demolition

By Tom Morrison

 

Windsor West Liberal MPP Teresa Piruzza has announced the Ontario government has contributed $3 million to the City of Windsor for the demolition, cleanup and redevelopment of the old Grace Hospital site.

At a press conference held Feb. 15 at the site, Piruzza and Mayor Eddie Francis said an additional $4 million donation is going through the province’s approval. The combined $7 million will roughly cover the amount the city paid to buy the site in November and the $4.1 million committed to the private contractor for demolition, Francis said.

“The Ontario government remains committed to funding the full cost of cleanup, property acquisition and demolition to help ensure that this project is brought to successful completion,” said Piruzza in her first public appearance as minister of children and youth services.

Representatives from the province previously said they would commit $2 million total to the cleanup and demolition of the site. Piruzza said the government didn’t know the actual amount needed at the time.

The $7 million won’t cover the $92,000 recently spent by the city to acquire two nearby lots which Francis said are essential for the cleanup.

“The last thing we wanted was a fragmented site and the last thing we wanted was a cleaned up site with two lots that weren’t cleaned up either,” Francis said. “Right now, the entire Grace site and the entire property is within the ownership of the City of Windsor.”

Piruzza said it will take about a month to find out if the provincial government will donate the additional funds. Francis said he’s confident they will come through.

“I have a letter from the province of Ontario, from the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. I have a commitment from the former finance minister (Dwight Duncan) that the money is allocated and we have a commitment today from (Piruzza) that the province is moving forward so I’m not concerned about it,” said Francis.

Frank Harshaw, a resident from the area, said he isn’t convinced the site will come down because there have been other press conferences held at the site that didn’t lead to the demolition.

“This is probably just another bunch of B.S,” Harshaw said. “They’ll find something wrong. They’ll find something in the building or some reason not to tear it down.”

Francis said he and other politicians should be judged by their actions, not their words, but the city and the province are moving forward with the demolition.

Demolition is expected to begin within a week of this conference. The demolition crew will begin by removing the asbestos from one building then demolishing it and will repeat this process for every other building on the site. Francis said the complete demolition and cleanup will take months.