Paul Forsyth has done an amazingly good job of investigative journalism in his identification of property investments in the northwest corner of St. Catharines. We have needed some sunshine into this area. Now let's add in the information about the highway reconstruction that has been planned to permit easier access to the same area.

According to a Niagara Region-sponsored publication, "West St. Catharines Transportation Study, Final Report, May 2006," the cost at that time was estimated to be between $12,519,000 and $45,799,000 depending on choices of several short- and long-term options. It seems pretty obvious that the proposed new hospital is the centre of attention for all this activity. Since it was the Niagara Health System's decision to make the new hospital a regional hospital rather than what was first advertised as a St. Catharines facility, doesn't this make the whole issue a regional council affair?

Doesn't all this new information make it look like, in effect, a Niagara Health System subsidy to the economic development of St. Catharines at a serious cost of access to service for the great majority of south Niagarans?

Where are our regional councillors on this matter? It takes great courage to speak truth to power but, in the interests of the majority of Niagarans, the time to do it is now.

Dr. Garnet McDiarmid

Port Colborne