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A multimillion-dollar renovation of the emergency and X-ray departments at Petrolia’s hospital is expected to soon go out for tender.
Published Jan 08, 2026 • 3 minute read
Standing outside of Petrolia’s hospital Thursday are, from left, Paula Reaume-Zimmer, CEO and president of Bluewater Health, Sarnia-Lambton OPP Bob Bailey, and Kathy Alexander, executive director of the Bluewater Health Foundation. Photo by Paul Morden /The ObserverArticle content
A multimillion-dollar renovation of the emergency and X-ray departments at Petrolia’s hospital is expected to go out for tender in the coming weeks, a decade after planning for the project began.
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“We’re talking about an initiative that really began in 2016,” Paula Reaume-Zimmer, president and CEO of Bluewater Health, said Thursday at the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital of Bluewater Health while announcing the Ministry of Health has approved moving ahead with selecting a contractor.
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“This has been a lot of work in the making, and we’re excited to be here today,” she said.
Once a contractor is selected, “we will start to see some significant activity here,” Reaume-Zimmer said.
Paula Reaume-Zimmer, CEO and president of Bluewater Health, speaks Thursday during an announcement at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital of Bluewater Health. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer
Once started, the work is expected to take 18 to 24 months and the hospital will remain open during the renovations, she said.
The project is an initial step in a long-term, multi-phase capital redevelopment of the hospital in Petrolia, with the initial renovations focused on the site’s busy emergency department and its diagnostic imaging department.
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“Early on, when we did the master plan, we had to make a decision on where we wanted to start and that’s where the greatest need was,” said Bob DeRaad, vice-president of clinical services.
“The equipment in the diagnostic imaging department was quite dated, and the emergency department was originally designed to accommodate 7,500 visits (a year) and now we’re seeing north of 22,000 visits,” he said.
The work during the initial project will be divided into eight phases so the departments at the hospital can continue serving patients, DeRaad said.
Reaume-Zimmer said the cost of the initial project won’t be known until the tender process is complete but hospital officials said in 2024 it was expected to be “millions.”
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The emergency department will be “a little bit larger” with “a lot more examination rooms,” when the work is completed, DeRaad said.
“The lines of sight will be a lot better for the staff,” he said. “It’s very cut up right now and we’ve never had a central monitoring station” which will be part of the update, DeRaad said.
The overall master plan consists of five phases in total and “eventually, the whole Petrolia site will be renovated,” he said. “There will be some new construction, as well, but that will be 25, 30 years down the road.”
Typically, the community is expected to raise a portion of the cost of capital projects at hospitals, and that fundraising will be the responsibility of foundations at Bluewater Health and CEE.
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Mark Braet, chairperson of the CEE foundation, said they’ve already raised $1.2 million and are waiting to see the tender results to learn what the goal will be.
“The last number we heard was around $4 million,” he said.
Mark Braet, chairperson of the CEE Hospital Foundation, speaks Thursday at the hospital in Petrolia. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer
Braet said he’s confident the fundraising goal can be achieved, regardless of where the final figures land.
“We’re going to start the ball rolling now,” he said. “I’m sure we can do it.”
Providing health care in rural areas, like Petrolia, is important, Reaume-Zimmer said.
“The fact is this hospital needs to operate at maximum capacity with the highest quality in partnership with the Sarnia site,” she said. “The demand requires both.”
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey said he never lost faith the project eventually would receive ministry approval to go to tender “but I sure as heck wondered, ‘when’s it going to happen?’”
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Bailey said he’s happy the day has finally arrived, after a long wait.
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey speaks Thursday during an announcement at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital of Bluewater Health. Photo by Paul Morden /The Observer
There have been times during the past decades when residents of the Petrolia area had to rally to keep the Petrolia hospital open.
It’s named for the spouse of Jake Englehart, a founder of Imperial Oil, and was donated to the town following her death, with the hospital opening more than a century ago in what had been the couple’s Petrolia mansion.
Bailey said he recalls battles with provincial governments dating back decades to the days of the late long-serving Lambton MPP Lorne Henderson.
“They were going to close this hospital and the story is he got up out of a sickbed and drove to Toronto and threatened to cross the floor,” if it was closed, Bailey said, “They changed their mind.”
About two decades ago, a group of Petrolia-area residents came together to save the hospital when it again faced potential closing by the provincial government.
“The community rallied up to support it and keep it open,” Bailey said.
“And here we are today . . . talking about a major renovation of this hospital to make it even more successful,” he said.
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