Old hospital ‘definitely occupied,’ witness says

The old General Hospital site, supposedly under 24-hour security hired by the property owner, appeared to be unsecured with occupants inside on Monday, according to a witness who posted photographs on social media.

"We were originally just going for a drive and decided to look at the old hospital," the witness tells SooToday.

This happened around 3 p.m. as the woman and her boyfriend were travelling down Queen Street East.

"We could see the door cracked from the road," she said, asking that she not be named in this news story.

"The door was wide open. We noticed the door so we peeked in."

"We heard voices inside. It's definitely occupied. It spooked me as I had no idea whatsoever what I would be facing."

The open door was on the former hospital's east side, at the top of a wheelchair ramp facing the Doctors Building parking lot, she said.

Shortly after her discovery, the woman posted photographs of it on social media.

These latest images from inside the building suggest conditions have hardly improved there since developer Italo Ferrari appeared before city council last month.

"I think it’s important people know that it is not safe," the woman said.

"I was hesitant to move beyond the entrance, even more spooked once I realized I was invading someone’s living space."

"It’s been vandalized beyond recognition," she said.

"No smell really. Not where I was standing anyways. I feel sorry for those choosing to live there."

The woman said she saw no evidence of any kind of security presence on the property, and there appeared to be little, if any, snow removal.

There was so much snow, she said, that she had to barrel-roll down an accumulated snow bank just to leave the building.

"So coming out, I got stuck and had to jump onto a hill. Then kinda rolled down it to the road," she told SooToday.

The woman said the door was still wide open and visible from the street when she went past the former hospital site again around 8 p.m.

At the Dec. 12 city council meeting, Ferrari claimed to have started 24/7 security coverage of the old hospital property a month earlier.

A letter from Nicolas Rabaa, president of Thunder Bay-based RLP Security Services, described the security arrangement as follows: "The scope of our engagement per your direction is to provide uniformed on-site security surveillance in addition to 'marked vehicle' mobile coverage, during the hours of 18:00 to 04:00 daily and an additional shift of 10:00 to 18:00 on weekends and holidays."

In addition to protecting the former General Hospital site at 941 Queen St. E., RLP was also retained to cover nearby properties at:

• 10 Lucy Terrace
• 955 Queen St. E. (Doctors Building)
• 995 Queen St. E. (former Plummer Hospital)
• 369 Queen St. E. (commercial building housing the law office of former mayor Christian Provenzano, as well the constituency office of Sault MP Terry Sheehan, among other tenants)

"This is a full-time security now," Ferrari told city councillors at their Dec. 12 meeting.

"It's costing us a very expensive undertaking, but we're doing it."

"We're trying to co-operate. We're trying to resolve the issues that we have on hand," Ferrari said.

"Right now, we secure the building. We try to keep it as neat as possible."

In January 2022, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service charged three youth with trespassing at the former General Hospital site, after they got lost in the huge edifice and couldn't find their way out.

SooToday's Kenneth Armstrong reported at the time that between 2017 and 2021, police responded to 113 calls for service there and three other people had been charged in that time period.

"Why not hire more security?" the mayor asked Ferrari at last month's city council meeting.

"Well, how many security can I hire?" Ferrari responded.

"As much security as required to secure the building," Shoemaker said.

"You know what?" Ferrari told the mayor. "Maybe I have to come back to your office, Your Worship, and ask for a permit to put a fence around the building and close it off like a concentration camp. I don't know what else I can do."

The concentration camp remark caused Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo and Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi to walk out of the meeting.

It also prompted Mayor Shoemaker to ask city staff to no longer communicate with Ferrari or any representative until he apologized.

Ferrari issued a subsequent apology, describing his remarks as "inappropriate and offensive, particularly to members of the Jewish community."

Councillors nonetheless agreed on Dec. 12 to proceed with tougher property standards enforcement on the old hospital site, including consideration of acquiring and demolishing the building.

Demolition is estimated to cost about $6 million, not including any added costs for expropriation, insurance and environmental liabilities.

SooToday reached out late last night to Ferrari and RLP Security Services and will post additional coverage if they shed substantive additional light on Monday's security situation.