A new hospital in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, will nearly triple the care capacity of its existing facility and will become the largest hospital in Canada. Trillium Health Partners (THP) will fully replace its Mississauga Hospital with a new 24 storey facility.
Building Design + Construction reports that the new Mississauga Hospital will feature modern hospital facilities and technology and reflect the latest standards in infection prevention and control. It will increase the number of operating rooms from 14 to 23 and include more than 950 beds.
THP's emergency department, one of the busiest in Canada, will significantly expand to improve patient experience and reduce wait times. It will continue to deliver specialized care through regional programs, such as the regional center for advanced cardiac surgery and neurosurgery services, among others.
Global integrated design firm Stantec will offer design and engineering services. Mississauga Hospital marks the second Stantec project for THP. In December, Stantec announced it would provide design and engineering services for a nine-floor, 600,000 square foot patient tower with over 350 beds.
According to a recent DataBid Blog titled: Plans Call for Massive Rebuild of Mississauga Hospital, the article stated that the new Mississauga Hospital will include the following:
- More than 950 hospital beds
- One of Ontario's largest emergency departments
- New surgical platforms
- Increase operating rooms from 14 to 23
- New advanced diagnostic and imaging capacity
- Additional pharmacy and clinical lab space
- Large parking structure
Insauga reports that in addition to the new hospital in Mississauga, to be built at the same location as the existing facility at The Queensway and Hurontario Street, the money earmarked for THP will also go towards extensive renovations at the Queensway site.
According to THP, no hospital in Ontario has experienced greater demand for healthcare services than Mississauga Hospital. During the pandemic, THP has cared for one of the highest volumes of COVID-19 patients in the province, often in parts of the hospital that were built more than 60 years ago.
Over the next 20 years, according to the Ontario government, the demand for healthcare services at THP is expected to increase by nearly seven times more than the average hospital in Ontario as Peel and Etobicoke continue to grow.
The Pointer states that some council members and senior staff have offered caution, in some cases, on minister's zoning orders (MZOs), which allow the minister of municipal affairs and housing to bypass the local planning and approval process for a wide range of development applications and other projects. When enacted, an MZO allows proponents to avoid many aspects of the Planning Act, including certain bylaws put in place by cities meant to protect the public and the community at large from being forced to live with features they do not want. The benefit of this special tool is that it can cut through the "red tape" of local bureaucracy and expedite projects for the benefit of the public.
These are the reasons the Mississauga City Council has asked for an enhanced minister's zoning order (EMZO) for a portion of the new Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Hospital, a more than $2 billion project.
An EMZO gives the minister of municipal affairs and housing the authority of on-site plan control. This means a municipality no longer has direct control over the project and its footprint during the work. An MZO has similar powers, but allows the municipality to maintain oversight of the project under local planning staff. Neither tool can override certain planning authority in the Greenbelt Area, including lands covered in the Niagara Escarpment Plan and Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.
THP's President and CEO Kali Farrow laid out the reasoning for an EMZO and Ward 7 Councillor Dipika Damerla presented a motion to endorse THP's request for the EMZO, which was passed.
According to THP's plans, one portion of the land closest to Hurontario Street is being occupied by Camilla Care Community Long Term Care home. The hospital is in the process of buying the land. According to Farrow, an EMZO is needed to quickly rezone the land from residential to institutional so THP's patient tower can be built.
The giant 950-bed facility will add almost 50 percent more capacity and will update the current outdated infrastructure. The site at 100 Queensway West was built in 1958 and served the various townships surrounding it at the time, until the Credit Valley Hospital came online in 1985, which has since been updated.
Mississauga in the next 30 years will have a significantly larger population (close to 1 million by 2051) and will have to develop infrastructure now before more residents arrive.
See DataBid Blog titled: Plans Call for Massive Rebuild of Mississauga Hospital
