Dear editor:

When Niagara-on-the-Lake finally looks at options for repurposing the former hospital site, I hope council considers some of the issues that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the failure of several seniors’ residences and long-term-care facilities in Ontario to keep the people who live in them safe and healthy, and the negative impacts of isolation on these individuals.

Would it be possible to convert the former hospital into a seniors’ facility that provides a combination of assisted-living accommodation and long-term care rooms, with a town-mandated service level, and town-hired management, to ensure the safety and well-being of facility residents?

To my mind that would be a much better option than seeing Niagara-on-the-Lake residents in need of long-term care being placed in a hub facility in Fort Erie or St. Catharines.

Rather than being isolated due to distance from friends and potentially families, and living in an unfamiliar community, making walking and other outdoor activities much more challenging, facility residents would remain in a community they know surrounded by people they know.

To my mind, this would be a much better option for the site than converting it into a parking lot for tourists. There are lots of other ways to address the traffic and parking issues in town, in particular creating parking lots outside of the Old Town core and providing a shuttle service to Queen Street.

Terry Davis

NOTL