Fort Erie Council has taken another step toward answering a question that has been hanging over our community for some time: What will health care in Fort Erie look like when the new South Niagara Hospital opens in 2028?
At our September 28 Council meeting, we agreed in principle to continue exploring a Community Health Hub for Fort Erie and approved up to $118,000 from the South Niagara Hospital Health Care Reserve to move into the next phase of planning.
For me, this is important work. The report prepared by Santis Health confirmed some of the challenges many of us already see in our community. More than 13,000 Fort Erie residents do not have a local family physician, and we could see a significant number of our existing physicians retire over the next five years.
A Community Health Hub could help address some of those challenges by bringing services together in one place. That could include primary care, walk-in and after-hours care, diagnostics, specialty clinics and other community health services.
There are still a lot of questions to answer. We need to determine what services should be included, who the partners will be, how it would be funded and governed, where it could be located and, most importantly, how we turn the idea into something that actually works for Fort Erie residents.
At the same Council meeting, I also made the decision to withdraw my long standing and “several times” deferred motion calling for the resignation of Niagara Health’s President and Board of Directors and requesting provincial oversight of its operations.
I introduced that motion for a reason. It was intended to apply pressure, demand accountability and make it clear that Fort Erie was not prepared to quietly accept the loss of local health-care services without a plan for what comes next.
I believe it helped make the point. But the goal was never simply to pass a motion. The goal has always been to get results for Fort Erie.
The Santis report makes it clear that if we are going to successfully develop a Community Health Hub, we are going to need people working together. That includes the Town, Niagara Health, the Niagara Ontario Health Team and other health-care providers and community partners.
With Council moving ahead with this next phase, I did not want my outstanding motion to become an obstacle to those discussions. Withdrawing it now was a show of good faith and an opportunity to create some room for everyone to come to the table and work toward a solution.
That does not mean the advocacy stops. I will continue pushing for meaningful health-care services here in Fort Erie just as I always have, including urgent care, better access to primary care, diagnostics and other services close to home. Council has also maintained its position that the existing Urgent Care Centre should remain until a viable alternative is actually in place.
There is still a great deal of work ahead. The next phase will look more closely at potential partners, funding, services, locations, implementation and ultimately the development of a detailed business case.
The South Niagara Hospital is scheduled to open in 2028. Between now and then, we need to make sure Fort Erie isn’t left wondering what comes next.
Withdrawing my motion doesn’t mean the pressure for a solution is gone. It means we’re giving collaboration an opportunity to produce one.
And at the end of the day, that has always been the objective: making sure Fort Erie residents continue to have access to the health-care services they need, here in their own community.
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