Contracts have been signed: The only contract I know that has been signed was to select the consortium to build the hospital. As far as I know, and with only 25 per cent of the design work done, we don't even know what is to be built yet, let alone the cost.

The plan is site-specific: How does designing a building for a flat piece of land make it site specific?

The planning is too far along: The NHS itself has said they have only done 25 per cent of the planning -- with 75 per cent not yet done.

This is a St. Catharines hospital so butt out: St Catharines is unable to pay for the new hospital itself and must have regional tax and community funding to build it. This will require the financial support of the whole Niagara region to pay for this.

The new hospital site and HIP are unrelated: Clearly the Hospital Improvement Plan, which must be adopted in some form or other, shows that it is not just a St Catharines hospital, but rather a regional referral hospital that impacts the health care for the rest of the Niagara Region. The other side of the argument is that, by siting the new hospital where it is, it makes it impossible to bring about the necessary consolidation of services for HIP because the new site is inaccessible to the rest of Niagara.

Any changes to the site will delay the new hospital for years: The site selection process in 2004 was done in less than six months and would not disrupt ongoing planning -- once it has been decided what services are to go into the new hospital.

Any delay would be more than offset by the improved funding support that would flow from the communities in Niagara as they rally around and support the new health-care complex that would benefit all of Niagara.

The article emphasizes all the reasons why the site cannot be changed.

Dr. Christopher Offierski, MD, FRCS