The plan more than a decade ago would have shuttered Welland hospital.

But Mayor Frank Campion said community efforts to keep the facility open have had a significant impact in the years since a report published in 2012 limited Niagara Health to operating two sites — a hospital each in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.

Since then, it has been decided a hospital will remain in Welland.

“We fought long and hard for this,” Campion said. “Back when I started on it, a lot of people were saying, ‘What are you doing? You’re never going to win this one.’ But through perseverance, hard work, strategies and buy-ins from (city) council and a lot of people, it’s worked out.”

He said a provincial planning grant approved earlier this month to allow Niagara Health to design and ultimately build a new

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