It makes sense to build hospital out of town
Re: New Cowichan hospital
Please not another round. This subject has been discussed many times over the past few years, since its need was first identified by formula on population. It is the Cowichan District Hospital, not the Duncan Hospital.
As I understand it, all Cowichan Valley residents pay through property taxes. It is not that many minutes away from the current location, with the benefit of closer highway access, for all Valley residents, not meandering through the suburbs of Duncan itself. I for one, am glad to see public buildings being built on higher ground, with good access from all points on the compass. Currently we have a high school, community centre, pool, ice rink, etc., ambulance station, RCMP station, all built on a flood plain. More frightening is that almost all are currently identified as needing multi million dollar upgrades.
I have been alive long enough to remember that all but the ambulance station required months/years of driving pile to be able to build on solid ground. Worse than that, there has been talk of placing the new RCMP building just on the other side of the dike at Somenos Lake — it’s a marsh! Regarding climate change, it would be common sense to stop building on flood plains, not to have all essential and public buildings built within a few blocks of each other. Please spread them throughout the community, so that in the event of a man-made or natural disaster, we don’t experience them all collapse or be blocked off, because the epicentre was the fluid land of the flood plain, which also has the Trans Canada Highway going through these same few blocks.
Having lived through the pile driving of the RCMP station and more recently the pile driving for the wall on Canada Avenue, which was supposed to control the water from Somenos Lake and Marsh, I would not wish this on anyone. We cannot control Mother Nature, the wall failed the first test, all the engineers and money could not do the job, that a few strategically placed huge sand bags could. Why is it necessary to spend millions on the likes of the wall, when we cannot predict where Mother Nature will go? It would have been far less disruptive for the residents and driving public if we went with the relatively inexpensive (in comparison) venue of having the sand bags ready to be deployed where and when necessary, and they can be reused!
I cannot imagine anyone, walking or biking to the hospital. The majority of people across Canada are 60 plus — I believe there are more of us than people under 30 — if I recall a recent newspaper article correctly. If I am going to the hospital it’s for an emergency, so walking and biking are not options. Walking and biking are for pleasure, not practical for going to hospital, doctors, dentists, pay bills, buy groceries, or use the local merchants.
The identified need for the new hospital is required to be of a certain land mass to build the structure, parking and hopefully future growth. Nothing of that size is available in the built up area that is Duncan proper, or the highway ribbon development area, thus the need to head slightly out of the downtown core. I believe that dollars have been collected from us taxpayers, for some years now, to soften the blow of the cost, for which I am thankful; a little bit over a long time is far less painful than a large amount all at once.
As I understand it, the current site is not of sufficient size to hold the requirements based on population. This land was given for the use of a hospital by the Stone family, at least three generations ago. It has reached the stage where the land will revert back to the descendants of this pioneer family, and I would like to thank them for their foresight and generosity to the community. The McKinnon family did the same thing, when the original King’s Daughter Hospital was built on Cairnsmore. After that facility no longer met the formula for population, the current long term care facility was built. After it was brought to the attention of the powers that be that they could not sell it, as they did not own it, they have the use of the land as long as a hospital facility is housed there, otherwise it reverts to the descendants.
I don’t believe that St. Andrews Church or 49th Parallel Grocer owe the general population the use of any spare parking they may have. I would be disappointed if the Green Party was on board, as that would mean they have not done a very good job of fact checking. I just hope that the new building site is sufficiently large enough to accommodate future growth, so that when the day comes, they may be able to build a new hospital, while using the old one and still have land left over for parking, plus some green space.
Karen A. Chaster
Duncan
