Ontario promotes new Kenora hospital — before actually giving it the green light

An ad from the Ontario government has caused confusion about the status of a new hospital in Kenora, but those involved in the project are taking it as a sign of positive developments to come.

The ad was seen this week on the province's official  Instagram account, @ongov. The text says, "Ontario is building a new Lake of the Woods hospital as part of our $48 billion plan to add 3,000 more hospital beds."

The Lake of the Woods District Hospital (LWDH) has been working with Kenora Chiefs Advisory (KCA) on the All Nations Hospital project for about six years. In October, LWDH and KCA announced the planning stages have been completed for the new 81-bed, water-access facility, which aims to blend Western medicine and traditional Indigenous healing.

The next step is receiving direction from the province to move forward with the project's design, contract document development and construction.

But the project hasn't been given final approvals, raising questions about the ad's timing. 

Hannah Jensen, deputy director of communications for the Ministry of Health, confirmed in an email on Friday that the ad is still active. On Monday, she confirmed the province provided a planning grant for the hospital project last spring.

Those involved with the project held a virtual media call Friday to address the ad and provide an update about the hospital.

"It was emotional for me to see this and also gratifying that from the provincial point of view, we're viewed as a priority," said Ray Racette, president and CEO of LWDH.

While the final report for Stage 2 of the project was completed and submitted to the province last year, Racette said they have not been approved yet to move on to the next phase.

"However this came about, we look at it as an opportunity to say, 'Hey, we're here. This is what we need. This is what we're doing,'" said Chief Lorraine Cobiness of Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation in response to the government's ad. She is a member of the All Nations Project planning team.

"We know that the province is on board eventually down the road to make sure that we're funded the way that we need to."

Space constraints, infrastructure challenges

LWDH was born once St. Joseph's Hospital and the Kenora General Hospital merged in 1968. Today, the 71-bed acute-care hospital serves more than 30,000 patients a year, according to its website.

Last fall, the province announced more than $1 million through its Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund to renovate LWDH's emergency department and make other infrastructure improvements.

However, the aging building continues to present challenges.

"There's some things we can't do right now because we don't have space," Racette said. "We've renovated our building to the extent we can get the best use out of it … [but] there are more things we'd like to do that we don't have capacity to do."

The new hospital is planned to be double the size of the current building and include several significant features:

• Five chemotherapy stations.
• Five dialysis stations.
• A new Indigenous Health service.
• Two withdrawal management beds.
• Capacity for 50 to 60 student placements per year.

A full list can be found on the All Nations Hospital project's website.

Cheryl Flaherty, vice-president of corporate services and chief financial officer for the hospital, will step into Racette's role upon his retirement in June. When she saw the province's ad, she said it felt like huge recognition for their hard work over the last several years.

"I felt validated that the province knows that we need a new hospital. Ours is beyond its best-before date and that's an understatement. It's in very poor condition in terms of its building assessment and it really needs to be replaced," Flaherty said. 

"It's a legacy project and we all must contribute as much as we can in terms of the future vision and make sure that our voices are heard."

Addressing discrimination in health care

Jennifer Dreaver, executive director of the Kenora Chiefs Advisory, said the project planning team has engaged with all the First Nations surrounding Kenora. From this, they've heard from Anishinaabe people with lived experiences of racism and discrimination in the former St. Joseph's hospital that have had a ripple effect on the next generation.

"We've been very intentionally bringing elders, knowledge keepers, traditional healers to the table to advise and consult on traditional healing, traditional medicines — that is a part of the planned campus of this new hospital," Dreaver said during Friday's media conference.

Rather than offering services in silos, Dreaver said, the vision is to take an integrated, holistic approach to mental, physical and spiritual wellness at the new facility.

That means offering in-hospital spiritual care and Indigenous health spaces, which include a ceremonial room, Indigenous Resource Centre and healing rooms inside, and a sweat lodge and spaces for fires and gardens outside.

"All of us want to see the infrastructure pieces come together, but at the very same time, we also want to see system changes," Cobiness said. 

"Seeing our traditional ways of healing, our healers recognized, our medicines recognized and having that harmonized together with Western [medicine]."