Healthcare proximity comes up in almost every serious conversation about where we want to spend the next chapter of our lives.

Whether you're raising a family, helping aging parents, planning for retirement or thinking about remaining in your home for another ten or twenty years, access to healthcare matters.

On April 27, 2026, Ontario announced a $10 million investment to advance planning for a new Southlake Health acute-care hospital in East Gwillimbury and redevelopment of the existing hospital campus on Davis Drive in Newmarket.

The province says the projects are intended to support more than 250,000 residents across northern York Region and southern Simcoe County.

EAST GWILLIMBURY

A Second Acute-Care Hospital

Southlake says the new East Gwillimbury hospital is being planned as a full-service acute-care facility with an Emergency Department, inpatient units and a surgical program. Additional detailed service planning will occur during future phases.

DAVIS DRIVE · NEWMARKET

The Existing Southlake Campus Will Be Redeveloped

Southlake says the Davis Drive campus will be renovated with modernized inpatient units and operating rooms, along with expanded Emergency Department capacity.

STILL TO COME

Detailed Planning Is Still Underway

Important details are still being developed. Residents should not assume a final bed count, hospital size, construction schedule or opening date until those details are formally announced.

Southlake Regional Health Centre became Southlake Health as part of a new strategy for the decade ahead.

Southlake's strategy centres on becoming what it calls a Distributed Health Network.

The network is intended to be anchored by two hospital sites — the redeveloped Davis Drive campus and the new East Gwillimbury acute-care hospital — while also using community-based Advanced Care Centres, digital health and healthcare partnerships to bring more care closer to home.

Early planning is not a finished hospital, and it would be a mistake to treat it as one.

But over a ten-year view, investment in healthcare infrastructure is something worth understanding when you're deciding where you want to live, retire or age in place.

I often encourage clients to evaluate a community based on the life around the home — not simply the house itself.

Healthcare is part of that equation alongside family, recreation, transportation, shopping, community and the everyday routines that make life easier.

If you're thinking about your own retirement lifestyle in York Region , healthcare access is one more piece of the larger lifestyle conversation.

When evaluating a home for retirement or long-term living, consider actually driving from the property to Southlake's Davis Drive campus.

Try it at more than one time of day. Understand the routes you would realistically use and, if healthcare access is particularly important to you, speak with your healthcare providers about the locations relevant to your own care.

It's a simple exercise, but it gives you much more useful information than simply measuring kilometres on a map.

Is Southlake Health building a new hospital in East Gwillimbury?

Ontario has endorsed plans for a second Southlake Health acute-care hospital in East Gwillimbury and provided funding to advance planning.

How much money did Ontario provide for Southlake's hospital planning?

Ontario announced a $10 million investment to advance planning for both the East Gwillimbury hospital and redevelopment of Southlake's Newmarket campus.

What will happen to Southlake's Newmarket hospital?

The Davis Drive campus is planned for redevelopment with modernized inpatient units and operating rooms and expanded Emergency Department capacity.

When will the new East Gwillimbury hospital open?

A confirmed opening date has not yet been announced. The project remains in planning.

What is Southlake's Distributed Health Network?

It is Southlake's long-term strategy connecting hospital sites, community-based Advanced Care Centres, digital health and healthcare partnerships across the region.