Unfortunately, the fact that we took the initiative to purchase a potential new location for the hospital has not seemed to result in a reasonable approach from our landlord-developers. Based on a recent conversation with their lawyer in the lobby of the City of Pickering, it appears they are not willing to pay any of the tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees necessitated by their actions in the past year. More specifically, MCVH appealed the approval of a temporary building proposed by SR&R for the purpose of moving us into, so that they could continue the complete demolition involved in their investment. Our appeal, to the Ontario Municipal Board early in 2008, was based on the questionable planning (access, parking, lighting etc) that was a part of the landlord's temporary building proposal. The Ontario Municipal Board, as well as Mr. Jamie Bennett, a highly respected Senior Registered Professional Planner and Dan Terziewski, a Transportation Engineer agreed that we had more than sufficient justification to question their planning. More specifically, Mr. Bennett stated that "the proposed variance... is not desirable for the appropriate development and use of the land, is not minor, and does not represent good planning". As a result, in response to our appeal, the OMB granted MCVH the right to comment on future modifications necessary to correct the original planning. Given that this appeal was our only chance to ensure that this happened, it seems perfectly clear that our appeal was justified. Unfortunately, SR&R will not pay for the necessary legal costs we incurred to correct their inappropriate planning. In a separate matter, in June of 2008, a number of industry consultants were brought to the Bay Ridges Plaza regarding the prospect of further demolition of the remainder of the plaza, right up to the final side of our hospital. We have pictures showing the subject of their investigations, and testimony confirming the above, from one of the industry workers that was consulted. When we learned about this, we applied to the courts to have such demolition activity prevented, based on our lease, which, according to the Ontario Court of Appeals, does not entertain/allow for complete demolition of the Bay Ridges Plaza while our hospital is doing business there. Despite this, SR&R refuses to pay for these legal costs necessary to protect ourselves from what would clearly appear to be a breach of contract and a serious impediment to our business. In our opinion, it would also be a potentially significant health hazard. In 2000, the year we began, our lease indicated that our substantial startup investments would serve us until the end of the available terms – until 2015. However, after only 5 of that potential total of 15 years, the plaza was purchased by SR&R, and our business has been disrupted on an ongoing basis ever since. We have now taken the initiative to make another significant (but otherwise unplanned) investment in a location beyond the plaza, without any assistance at all from SR&R. As a result, Millennium City is still having great difficulty in reaching a settlement that would honour our contract and the significant investment we have made to start our one and only business (not to mention how much of our lives we have poured into it..) at the Bay Ridges Plaza in Pickering. |
