BUILD FOR 2050.
CARE FOR PEOPLE TODAY.
The new hospital is a once-in-a-generation investment for Collingwood and South Georgian Bay. I fully support it.
My concern is whether we are planning enough capacity for the community that will exist when it opens and for the decades that follow.
CGMH is officially an 84-bed hospital today and already identifies rising emergency volumes and inpatient overcapacity as ongoing challenges. The new hospital is currently planned for 98 inpatient beds, with another 34 beds identified for future needs, for up to 132 beds.
Collingwood General & Marine Hospital; Government of Ontario, December 2024
That means the initial increase could be only 14 inpatient beds. And this is happening while the region CGMH serves is growing dramatically.
- 73,000+Permanent residents served todayCGMH serves Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Clearview and The Blue Mountains.Collingwood General & Marine Hospital
- ~119,000Projected around 2050Current municipal growth forecasts put Collingwood at 42,690 residents, Wasaga Beach at at least 38,090, Clearview at 21,820 and The Blue Mountains at roughly 16,140 around the same long-range planning horizon. That is approximately 119,000 permanent residents across the primary service area.Simcoe County; Grey County
- 3.5 millionAnnual visitorsPermanent population is only part of the demand. CGMH says South Georgian Bay also receives approximately 3.5 million visitors every year.Collingwood General & Marine Hospital
ARE WE BUILDING
ENOUGH?
Earlier CGMH planning projected a need for 159 inpatient beds by 2036/37 and 203 beds by 2046/47. That study specifically considered population growth, aging, occupancy, alternate-level-of-care pressures and the impact of non-local, seasonal and tourist populations.
Collingwood General & Marine Hospital
The current plan is for up to 132 beds.
That does not mean the old projection is automatically right. Healthcare delivery changes. More care can happen outside hospitals, lengths of stay can improve and technology changes how services are delivered. But there is a reasonable question that deserves an answer:
WHAT CHANGED?
Before the final hospital design is locked in, I want an updated and publicly explained capacity forecast that looks at what South Georgian Bay will actually require on opening day, in 2040 and in 2050. If the evidence shows we will need more capacity, we should advocate for it now.
BUILD THE CAPACITY
BEFORE WE NEED IT.
More beds do not all have to be staffed on opening day. But if we know additional beds will be required, we should determine whether the building, mechanical systems, utilities, elevators and clinical areas can be constructed or roughed-in now so future beds can be brought online without another major expansion.
CGMH already says the new site and hospital are being planned with space for future expansion. I want to make sure that expansion is practical, affordable and capable of happening quickly when the community needs it.
Your Future Hospital, CGMH
Planning that capacity during construction can be far more responsible than discovering a decade later that we have to tear into a functioning hospital to create space we knew we were going to need.
A HOSPITAL IS ONLY AS STRONG
AS THE PEOPLE INSIDE IT.
Beds alone do not deliver healthcare. We need nurses, doctors, specialists, technicians, therapists, PSWs, paramedics and support workers to provide the care. CGMH itself has identified workforce shortages as one of the challenges facing healthcare in South Georgian Bay.
Collingwood General & Marine Hospital
As Mayor, I would advocate aggressively with the Province for the operating funding and staffing required to use the capacity we build. Locally, we also need to make South Georgian Bay somewhere healthcare professionals can afford and want to build their lives. That means looking at:
- Housing
- Childcare
- Transportation
- Physician recruitment
- Quality of life
These are healthcare issues too.
KEEP PEOPLE OUT OF HOSPITAL BEDS
WHEN THEY DON’T NEED TO BE THERE.
Hospital capacity cannot be solved by hospital beds alone. As our population grows and ages, we also need substantially more:
- Retirement living
- Assisted living
- Long-term care
- Rehabilitation
- Home + community care
- Seniors housing
When someone no longer needs acute hospital care but has nowhere appropriate to go, that creates pressure on the hospital system. We need to plan these pieces together.
PLAN THE HUME STREET
SITE NOW.
CGMH says the future of the existing hospital property has not yet been determined. I do not think we should wait until the new hospital opens to begin that conversation.
Your Future Hospital, CGMH
I would bring the Town, CGMH, the County, healthcare providers and the community together early to explore whether the Hume Street site can continue serving our healthcare system. That could include some combination of: long-term care, retirement and assisted living, rehabilitation, primary care, medical services, seniors housing and healthcare-worker housing.
The new hospital site could focus on acute and emergency healthcare while the existing site helps support aging, recovery and community-based care. That is the kind of long-term planning we need.
Eight things I would push for
As Mayor, I would push for:
- An updated South Georgian Bay healthcare-capacity forecast through 2050.
- A public explanation of the change from the earlier 203-bed projection to today’s 132-bed plan.
- A review of whether more beds should be included or physically prepared during initial construction.
- Provincial operating and workforce funding to ensure the beds we build can actually open.
- A regional healthcare strategy with Wasaga Beach, Clearview and The Blue Mountains.
- More retirement, assisted-living and long-term-care capacity across the region.
- A plan for the existing Hume Street hospital site before it becomes vacant.
- Continued physician and healthcare-worker recruitment and retention.
DON’T BUILD FOR OPENING DAY.
BUILD FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS.
The goal should not simply be a new hospital. It should be a healthcare system capable of serving South Georgian Bay as it grows from roughly 73,000 permanent residents today toward approximately 119,000 around 2050, while continuing to care for millions of people who visit this region every year.
To be straight about this: a mayor does not decide how big a hospital is. The Ministry of Health does, through its capital planning stages, and the hospital’s own board carries the plan through them. What a mayor controls is the Town’s share of the local cost, the servicing and roads to the site, the planning approvals around it, and whether Collingwood turns up to every one of those stages with one position or with none.