Residents were pleased to hear that a health hub could be coming to Maple Grove Road when originally announced by Councillor Gower. He is a strong proponent behind the health hub and held an evening event on January 28, 2025, along with Dr. Taylor Ferrier, to share information and the services a facility such as a health hub could provide to residents. Dr. Ferrier had reached out to the Councillor in 2024 to discuss his interest in pursuing a health hub as he had recently moved to Stittsville. Dr. Ferrier is the medical director and a physician at the Tay River Health Centre in Perth.
The plans Dr. Ferrier shared would include comprehensive healthcare being available with a health team approach similar to that of Perth. In Perth, there are family physicians, Registered Practical Nurses, and services such as dental, audiology, ophthalmology, home care, podiatry, physiotherapy and treatment programs – specialty infusions, injections, education, and clinical trial support. Since his initial idea that included a couple of doctors, there are now a group of twenty who are interested. At the time, the group had submitted an application that includes nine health programs initially to receive funding approval for a Kanata-Stittsville family health team to the Ontario Ministry of Health.
In April, 2026, eight acres of City of Ottawa land was being made available to build a new health hub to attract a team of physicians to Stittsville. A request for expressions of interest was made as part of a two-stage process that was followed by a Request for Proposal.
There was only one respondent to the RFP with a bid at a significantly lower per acre price (the Maple Grove site is valued at $1.1 million per acre). Through the review process, an evaluation by staff revealed key site-specific constraints with one being the proximity to future light rail transit infrastructure. Legal Services had also advised that the sole RFP submission raised concerns regarding compliance with the RFP requirements and potential implications under Section 106 of the Municipal Act, 2001 related to the disposition of municipal land significantly below fair market value.
City staff say, according to the city’s Finance and Corporate Services Committee report, that “the proposed health hub concept on Maple Grove is no longer being considered as the highest and best use of the property”. City staff say that a city-owned site of 16-acres located at 2110 Carp Road near the Carp Park & Ride as the only potentially suitable parcel for further consideration as a future Health Hub location.
“2110 Carp Road is the only municipal site in Ward 6 that appears to provide sufficient size, flexibility and development potential to support a future Health Hub initiative. Unlike 1655 Maple Grove Road, the site could be developed without the complications of an area ownership group (Kanata West Ownership group as an example) and infrastructure services such as water, wastewater, and stormwater will be constructed within the Carp Road right of way as part of the Carp Road widening project,” say staff in the report.
The report further stated, “The availability of suitable land alone does not ensure increased access to primary care. A future procurement should assess a proponent’s ability to recruit and retain primary care clinicians, create net-new capacity for unattached patients, establish a sustainable operating model, integrate with existing regional primary care planning and attachment initiatives, and demonstrate how primary care access outcomes will be measured over time. Recognizing that City procurement and development timelines may not align with provincial primary care planning and funding opportunities, the City could also explore earlier or staged commitments with a preferred proponent, where appropriate and subject to procurement and legal requirements. This could provide proponents with greater opportunity to pursue provincial funding and health-system partnerships while the municipal process continues.”
Councillor Gower is aware of the Finance and Corporate Services Committee report.
On November 10th, at the Finance and Corporate Services Committee meeting, staff will be directed “to proceed with a revised RFP process for a future Health Hub development opportunity at the city-owned property located at 2110 Carp Road subject to an ongoing due diligence and review.”
For further information: https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=338800.