Invest WindsorEssex

Challenge

The Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation (now Invest Windsor Essex) was struggling to attract new businesses to the Windsor Essex area to help reduce regional unemployment, which was among the highest in Canada. One of the barriers major international corporations raised in their site selection process was the state of the region’s hospital, built in 1927, where patients were suffering outdated conditions.

A new, regional acute care hospital was desperately needed. Successive provincial governments had promised to fund the project for over a decade but with no real progress. In addition, a local NIMBY group was contesting the proposed location, including launching litigation, creating a perception that the region was divided in its support for a new hospital – giving officials an excuse for continued delays in advancing funding. In early 2020, Crestview Strategy was engaged by Invest Windsor Essex to help them to secure renewed firm government commitment with the necessary financing to build the new hospital.

Approach

To mobilize pro-hospital, pro-location supporters, Crestview Strategy worked with Invest Windsor Essex and local elected officials to develop and launch the WE Can’t Wait campaign. The integrated communications and public affairs program featured earned and paid social media and stakeholder and community outreach designed to convince local business, labour, and community leaders to engage with significant media, providing evident testimonials to demonstrate their strong support for the new hospital with Queen’s Park. Local municipal and elected officials also contacted their provincial counterparts to reinforce that the new hospital project was the region’s top priority.

Outcome

Crestview Strategy’s sophisticated integrated launch generated significant results. Crestview Strategy’s WE Can’t Wait campaign guided a very successful community mobilization. More than 4,000 residents signed up to support the campaign. Community leaders praised the campaign’s timely messages when the campaign launched during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Video testimonials and endorsements provided by many community, business, and union leaders were used by local media outlets and social media.  When Premier Ford toured the area in August, Windsor Essex elected officials, businesses, and residents had one consistent message for him: “WE Can’t Wait.”

Following a year of grassroots mobilization led by Crestview Strategy, in 2021, Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy delivered the provincial budget. In his speech, he announced that Windsor-Essex would receive the funding it had been waiting for to start designing the hospital, putting the region a significant step closer to putting shovels in the ground.