Toronto Grace hospital saved on voting day
February 4, 2010
Tanya Talaga
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
The Liberal government pledged an estimated $15 million on the eve of a key by-election to save the Toronto Grace Health Centre, whose uncertain fate had become a central issue in the race.
The Salvation Army announced Wednesday it has reversed its decision, revealed in the Star last week, to pull out of owning and operating the historic hospital in Toronto Centre riding.
"We went from shutting our hospital down to getting a grant to revamp it," said Al Duffy, vice-chair of the Grace's board of trustees. "Thank God for by-elections."
Health Minister Deb Matthews brushed off suggestions the deal to save the Grace, which will see the government fund major improvements to the facility, was politically motivated. "We have not let a hospital close under our watch and I can assure you we would not let the Grace," she said.
But the candidates for the NDP and the Progressive Conservative parties in Toronto Centre decried the timing of the announcement and the Liberal ride to the rescue.
"Given the situation was going on since spring of last year, it is pretty shocking," said Toronto street nurse and NDP candidate Cathy Crowe.
"Things don't normally happen that fast at the Ministry of Health. It is a major turnaround," she said.
Progressive Conservative candidate Pamela Taylor sarcastically called the timing "coincidental."
Matthews said the health ministry and the charity have not agreed on an amount to fix the facility's infrastructure.
"We haven't put a dollar on it, we are just not there yet," she said.
But Duffy said repairs will cost $12 million to $15 million over three years.
There is some asbestos in the building, no sprinklers and cast-iron drainpipes that have reached the end of their life, he said.
Matthews said she had been unaware the Salvation Army planned to leave the Grace until Liberal candidate Glen Murray called and told her last week.
However, the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the unit in charge of local planning decisions, has known since last June, Matthews acknowledged.
The fate of the hospital, which sits at Church and Bloor Sts. and specializes in palliative care, became a key issue in the race for the Toronto Centre seat left vacant when deputy premier George Smitherman resigned to run for the mayor of Toronto's job.
The Star revealed last week the Salvation Army had advised the government it no longer wanted to operate the Grace and that, in a bid to avoid closing the hospital or moving its services to a new location, the Grace's board of trustees was in the process of putting together a plan to buy the facility.
The board appealed to the province for help after it was revealed the LHIN wanted to put out a request for proposals for new owners of the Grace – something the board feared might still jeopardize the delivery of services and 270 jobs at the site.
The Salvation Army has been getting out of the hospital business over the past decade to focus on its core missions – a fact Taylor was quick to point out.
"What is to stop this from being a problem in a year from now?" she asked, wondering how long the Salvation Army will stay around.
"My concern is this is not a durable option. It is a stopgap. Something to put a Band-Aid on the problem temporarily to calm the water because of the by-election," she said.
Politics and timing are not important to the Salvation Army, which opened the Grace in 1889, said Capt. John Murray.
"People and service are most important to us," he said.
The overwhelming community reaction to the charity's decision to pull out of the hospital and the health ministry's commitment to help fix the building caused the Salvation Army to reconsider, he said.
Finding the money to repair the building was the catalyst for the charity's decision, Duffy said.
Liberal candidate Murray, former mayor of Winnipeg, blamed the NDP for making an issue of the hospital's fate, saying the facility had never been at risk.
"The only reason it became a political football was because one political party tried to create friction where there wasn't any," he said.
"What was so unfortunate about that is that it was misrepresented by the NDP as the hospital being at risk for closure."
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said no patient should have gone through the anxiety of wondering whether or not the hospital was going to close.
"It's another example of the cynical kind of politics played by the McGuinty government," she said.
Toronto Star