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However, Dr. Chris Carruthers, a former chief of staff at The Ottawa Hospital who retired in 2009, said the Experimental Farm property is still the best site. It’s close to the new Ottawa Heart Institute and both the heart institute and the Ottawa Hospital depend on each other’s service.

“To deliver the health care effectively and economically, they have to be linked. They have to be across the street,” said Carruthers, who wrote an op-ed for the Citizen in May advocating for the farm site.

“We have to get on with this. The old Civic hospital facilities are archaic. The longer we postpone this decision, the longer we’re going to have to wait for a new facility,” he said.

“And with all due respect, health care is more important than preserving that part of the farm — which I know and love and ride my bike through, but there you go.”

Bay Ward Coun. Mark Taylor, meanwhile, said he wasn’t expecting to see the Lincoln Fields land on the list. The site designated by the NCC includes the north-south strip along Pinecrest Creek already slated for construction Phase 2 of Ottawa’s LRT line.

“New day, new surprise from the NCC,” Taylor said.

“I’m not sure how this land will work for them. It’s environmentally sensitive land in the Pinecrest Creek corridor, which normally the NCC puts a very high premium on.”

In addition to the LRT and Transitway, the parcel of land is hemmed in by the Queensway and residential neighbourhoods.

“The challenge with this site is that even though it’s a fairly large space, if they avoid the LRT and the environmentally sensitive land, they’re going to end up land-locked again. You won’t have built a site that offers potential for expansion,” Taylor said.