There are two Stittsville items on the agenda for the November 10 Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting at City Hall. One is straightforward, the approval of a lease for space on Iber Road to house staff from the City’s Wastewater, Infrastructure and Water Services Department. It will likely carry on consent.
The other is significant: a report on the proposed Kanata-Stittsville Health Hub, to be located on a piece of land between Maple Grove Road and Palladium Drive. The report outlines the results of a Request for Proposals (RFP) and a recommendation to focus instead on a site on Carp Road near the park-and-ride:
“The RFP did not produce a qualified proposal. The sole bid offered significantly below market value for the land which was valued at approximately $1.1 million per acre. The proposal did not meet procurement requirements and raised legal concerns regarding the sale of municipal land below market value. Through discussions with the proponent, they indicated that the additional costs and complexity rendered the transaction non-financially viable per their assessment due to the high land value which is attributable to the location.
Based on learnings from the Maple Grove RFP, staff have determined that the current site is not ideal for this purpose. Staff have identified an alternative site that possesses fewer constraints and may be better suited for development of a health hub. Staff have identified 2110 Carp Road as the preferred alternative location for further evaluation.”
Obviously I am very disappointed with staff’s assessment and recommendations. The bid came from a group of local doctors led by Dr. Taylor Ferrier, partnered with Shenkman, an experienced builder and developer. Their proposal for a multi-disciplinary primary care health hub would include a physician-led health team providing services to 6,000 patients on day one, scaling up to 30 physicians and 40,000 patients within five years. It will fill a major gap in Stittsville and Kanata, where there are currently 19,000 residents “unattached” to a family doctor.
The group has letters of support from across the health care community in the west end, including the Ottawa West Four Rivers Health Team, the Queensway Carleton Hospital, uOttawa Medicine, Carleton University Faculty of Nursing, Montfort AFHT and Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre. It’s a very strong proposal.
The recommended Carp Road site is not ideal. It’s on the outskirts of the community, comes with a lot of risks and unknowns, and would likely delay the project by at least three to four years.
I am working with the Mayor’s Office, City staff, and the proponent group to come up with a solution that would keep the focus on the Maple Grove site, and plan to bring a motion to committee on Tuesday. More to come…
You can access the meeting documents for next week’s meeting here.