Speaking with Niagara this Week following an update from Kitts to the Local Health Integration Network Niagara Falls Coun. Jim Diodati said he would like to think the president and CEO of Ottawa Hospital is going to look at the 311-page plan with an open mind.

But if at any point the "expert advisor" shows he is here to "rubber stamp a ridiculous plan," he will go to the next level.

"If at any point we suspect bias, we will go to the top with our plight," said Diodati, who is in Ottawa for the annual Association of Municipalities Ontario conference. "I'd like to believe he is open-minded, but we will be watching.

"I'd be extremely disappointed to learn if in his mind it's a done deal."

Welland MPP Peter Kormos said the citizens of Niagara are not buying into the Niagara Health System's plan and neither should the consultant.

"Dr. Kitts, I'm sure, is a fine person and he came all the way to Niagara, so what?" he said. "For every Dr. Kitts there is a local doctor ... who knows far better who doesn't agree with the plan."

Kormos said the process shouldn't be about retaining an expert opinion, but about listening to the community.

Kormos said it is no secret some health-care professionals advocate centralization, but Niagara citizens don't and that should count for more than the opinion of a hired consultant.

While at the LHIN meeting in Grimsby Tuesday, Kitts said he liked the consolidation principles included in the plan released by the Niagara Health System July 17.

The proposal from the NHS is similar to one passed in Ottawa a decade ago, where Kitts is the president and CEO.

Services in Ottawa were consolidated at three hospital sites, just like what is being proposed for hospitals in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland.

And despite public outcry there in the late 1990s, Kitts said, health care in Ottawa is better because of the consolidation that took place.

"We can safely say it is a better place in Ottawa now," Kitts said.

Explaining the geographics, Dr. Kitts said Ottawa and the Niagara region are similar in size and that some patients there are 45 minutes from a hospital.

But there have been no health risks because of it, despite fear from the public when the plan was presented in 1998, he said.