Vaughan's hospital project comes to life
Land deal negotiated last week means deadlocked project can now move forward.

thestar.com
June 5, 2015
By Noor Javed

Vaughan's long-awaited hospital project is finally coming to fruition.

The city announced last week that it has struck a deal that will allow Infrastructure Ontario to begin to receive proposals for construction of the new hospital in the next few weeks.

The project had been on hold for years as the city tried to find common ground between Mackenzie Health, a group with a provincial mandate to build the hospital, and a local group, Vaughan Health Campus of Care, that had helped acquire the 32-hectare site near Major Mackenzie Dr and Jane St. in 2009.

“It’s great news for the City of Vaughan and the citizens because the hospital is going to be built,” said Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua. “We can now work together to provide the services that the people of this city deserve and need,” he said.

With a population of more than 300,000, Vaughan is believed to be one of Canada’s largest cities without its own hospital. Residents currently rely on facilities in neighbouring Etobicoke and Richmond Hill for care.

The VHCC, headed by developer Michael DeGasperis, signed a deal in 2009 that the group claims gives them ownership of the land and a say in how it's used, although it’s the residents of Vaughan who are paying.

Local residents began paying a surcharge on their property taxes in 2009 to foot the $80-million bill for the 33-hectare site and will do so until 2022.

In an agreement signed by DeGasperis and the mayor on June 3, the VHCC said it was willing to give Mackenzie Health 25 hectares with no conditions, to prevent the project from being delayed any longer. They planned to hold on to the remaining eight hectares to build other “non-competing” health services.

Oddly, the document has a stamp that it was approved by council on April 21, more than a month before it was signed.

“We look forward to our hospital finally being built as quickly as possible, along with the much-needed ancillary health care services complementing the hospital,” said DeGasperis, adding that his group has raised more than $8 million for the construction of the hospital.

Last month, the City of Vaughan signed a 99-year lease with Mackenzie Health. The lease has a number of conditions that basically require the city to end the agreement with the VHCC, either through “mutual agreement … or is declared null and void by the applicable court with jurisdiction.”

But on Friday, Mackenzie Health CEO Altaf Stationwala said the conditions had been satisfied and the project can “move forward.”

“It’s all very positive,” he said. “Our ground lease provides us with the land we need for the hospital. And it’s really up to the city what happens on the remaining land.”

The hospital is expected to be built by 2019.