Muhammad Hamza, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

Just as the ground thawed from winter this past March, politicians, including Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, Premier Doug Ford and local MPPs, joined officials from the William Osler Health System to mark the beginning of construction for the long-awaited expansion of the Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Wellness.

The only problem: there was no construction.

The “groundbreaking ceremony” left many residents confused, and even some local elected officials were left surprised. 

“As a local regional councillor, I was taken aback to learn, after the fact, that we did not even have a contractor selected yet,” Brampton Councillor Martin Medeiros tells The Pointer. “What happened in March was misleading to the public.” 

When the event was questioned, Osler officials said “early construction” work was underway, but few details of what that entailed have been shared. Other than some fencing that has been installed, there have been no signs of construction activity at the site.

On October 27, residents finally got a concrete piece of news. 

According to a press release from Infrastructure Ontario, William Osler Health System, which manages Peel Memorial, Brampton Civic, and Etobicoke General Hospital in Toronto, has named Bird Design-Build Construction to lead construction of the project, alongside Cannon Design Ltd. which will handle the design phase. The successful proponents were chosen following an RFP process that closed back in April.

It’s still unclear why Premier Ford, Mayor Brown and other officials told the public that the event in March was the groundbreaking to kick-off construction, when the builder had not even been chosen. 

“This is a positive step forward, and hopefully there will not be further delays. Due to rapid population growth, Brampton needed a second full hospital years ago—and we should be in the process of planning a third,” Medeiros said. 

The project will provide Brampton, a city of nearly 800,000 residents, with an expanded healthcare footprint, but Memorial’s expansion has been a controversial topic in a city that will still only have one lone full-service hospital, Brampton Civic. Osler officials have been forced to acknowledge the project will not deliver a second full-service hospital, and it’s unclear if the PC government’s claims of delivering “Brampton’s New Hospital” are accurate.  

Even after its completion, calling Peel Memorial a hospital is somewhat misleading, as it remains unclear if it will officially qualify for that designation. 

According to the information Osler has released, the expansion will not include major wards such as surgery, trauma care, cancer or cardio treatment, or other features of a full-service hospital supported by a 24/7 fully functioning emergency department. Brampton will also not be getting the 850 acute care beds local officials have called for to bring the city’s bed count closer to the provincial average (it currently has about a third of the number of hospital beds per capita compared to the Ontario average). Osler has said the approximately 250 beds Memorial will get (it is currently an out-patient facility with no in-patient beds) are mostly going to be used for the offloading of patients from Civic who need longer-term, non-acute recovery and care.

Brampton Civic routinely operates over capacity, forcing patients into unconventional spaces for treatment.

In August, according to the most recent reported data by the provincial government’s Health Quality Ontario website, patients at Civic had to wait an average of 27.4 hours in the emergency room before they were admitted to a hospital bed, and only 14 percent were admitted within the provincial target time of 8 hours. 

Data from 2019 showed Brampton Civic operated at 101 percent to 106 percent capacity throughout the year, well beyond the recommended standard of care of 85 percent capacity. 

A Freedom of Information request by The Pointer in 2019 revealed that 3,035 patients had to be treated in hallways and other makeshift spaces inside Brampton Civic the year prior because of chronic overcrowding. 

Data obtained by The Trillium through a freedom of information request showed last year was the worst for Osler since hallway healthcare statistics were first tracked in 2017.   

Medeiros stressed the need for a second full-service hospital and a third hospital, saying the upcoming expansion of Memorial into a recovery support facility for Civic, will not meaningfully resolve Brampton’s healthcare shortcomings.

“It will help, but it will not solve Brampton’s healthcare crisis; a third hospital is needed today,” he stressed.

“However, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and hope access to family doctors for Brampton residents is addressed, as this is part of the solution to the healthcare crisis in Brampton.”

Councillor Pat Fortini echoed the concerns, emphasizing the dangerous delays residents have endured. 

“Brampton’s need for more investment and focus on health care has been a priority as our city continues to grow,” he wrote in an email. “Residents have been waiting for a second, full emergency (room) for a long time, and that’s why, last term on council, I put forward a motion to add a tax levy to provide additional support to the hospital.”

That motion by Fortini was eventually approved, a critical step in raising the necessary $125 million required from the City of Brampton to support the project. The approval came despite opposition from Mayor Brown, who attempted to have it quashed in order to meet another City budget freeze that he promised. He was campaigning to become leader of the Conservative Party of Canada at the time, and boasted about his record of freezing budgets in Brampton — something that has delayed critical infrastructure projects, gutted municipal savings and left the downtown to decay as critical investments have been cancelled or pushed to later years, while Brampton’s local share requirements to meet provincial hospital funding criteria have also been delayed.

Critics expressed anger with Brown, for putting his national political aspirations ahead of the life or death healthcare investments Brampton’s residents have demanded. 

On Monday, September 22, Health Minister Sylvia Jones held a press conference in Brampton, to highlight the expansion of primary care teams. The Pointer asked Minister Jones why money was not included in the 2025 budget for the Peel Memorial expansion project. She said, “We, as the province of Ontario, obviously have budgeted and are prepared to fund, as we do with all hospital capital builds, 90 percent of the build,” adding the government would not release the budget figure until a contractor was chosen. Brampton and Osler are responsible for the remaining 10 percent.

Despite her claim that the PCs “have budgeted” for the project, the money is not included in the 2025 budget document. 

She refused to reveal the amount allocated specifically for Peel Memorial’s expansion, claiming that doing so would “influence the bidding process.” Ford and other officials were at the site for a photo op in March with shovels in hand, claiming ground was being broken to start the project, even though Jones admitted a builder hadn’t even been selected. 

Then, in September, she claimed the funding details could not be disclosed because the bidding process might be influenced, even though that process ended in April.

“I have full confidence, and I am sure that I would never be invited back to Brampton or to speak to any of my colleagues if we did not set aside that money. It is there. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that this hospital is built.”

There is still silence on the full details of the contract—including the budget—which Minister Jones previously said couldn’t be released until the proponent is selected for the construction.

The Pointer sent detailed questions to Osler, Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and the Ministry of Health, asking when the full-scale construction will begin and the value of the development phase agreement between Osler, IO, and Bird Design-Build Construction Inc., along with the estimated completion timeline. 

As of publication, there has been no response.

While the province will cover 90 percent of the cost to expand Peel Memorial, the City of Brampton and William Osler are responsible for the remaining 10 percent, which the City reported in 2022 was an estimated $250 million (including the needed amount for a new cancer care unit at Civic. The municipal share of $125 million that City Hall was asked to provide has been a contentious issue, with Brown refusing on two occasions to support the request, previously kicking part of the responsibility to the Region of Peel, before councillors there flatly rejected his demand.

The Pointer reached out to the City’s media relations department about the local share requirement. There has been no response. 

Premier Ford promised Brampton residents to fix the healthcare crisis seven years ago, but inaction led to a healthcare emergency declaration by the last council, when local elected officials demanded a full-service second hospital with 850 acute-care beds to get closer to the provincial per capita figure; despite residents across the city struggling to find a family doctor, and critical surgeries being delayed for months, Ford refused the request, and Memorial’s long-promised expansion will only include 250 non-acute care beds.

The tragic story of Emily Viegas, a 13-year-old Brampton girl, who died after succumbing to COVID-19, during the pandemic, was a painful reminder of broken promises that have for years put lives at risk across the city. Her father was scared to take her to Brampton Civic Hospital because of the notorious reputation the overwhelmed healthcare facility had gained. She passed away in her own bed, after her father had seen with his own eyes the shocking scenes inside Brampton’s only hospital, where his wife had been taken after contracting COVID.

Councillor Fortini witnessed the shocking conditions firsthand. 

“Patients are being left in the hallways,” he told The Pointer in 2021, after he rushed his wife to Civic during the pandemic. 

“She was crying, she couldn’t move and I couldn’t just stand there for hours.”

After seeing his wife agonizing in pain waiting for care inside Civic, Fortini drove her to Georgetown hospital instead.

“At Georgetown, they brought her in within the hour. When we live here in Brampton, why can’t I go to a hospital across the street?”

He vowed to help bring a second full-service hospital to the city, something the Memorial expansion will not achieve.

“If someone’s doing chemo, you’ve to go all the way up Mount Sinai in Toronto which may cost you thousands of dollars just for gas and parking,” he said four years ago, when there was still hope that Memorial would get 850 acute-care beds and a fully operational ER, instead of a part-time urgent care centre.

The Ford PC government released its financial blueprint on November 6, committing to invest $56 billion over the next decade in health infrastructure, including more than $43 billion in capital grants. The PCs once again mentioned a plan to support more than 50 hospital projects, delivering 3,000 new hospital beds, but despite being one of the province’s longest delayed hospital projects, the statement makes no direct mention of Peel Memorial or any dedicated funding for its expansion.

Ford’s failure to turn Peel Memorial into a full-service hospital, despite his repeated promises, has angered residents across Brampton, where frustration continues to mount.

“It’s unacceptable. This is not a top-secret military project. This is a taxpayer-funded project that affects everyone in this community,” Chris Bejnar, co-founder of the local advocacy group, Citizens For a Better Brampton, said. “We’re approaching a decade of planning and very slow progress in relation to other health networks. In other jurisdictions, this whole process has happened much quicker.”

Email: muhammad.hamza@thepointer.com

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