The the province will pay up to $7 million to clean up the site of the former Grace Hospital.

Windsor West Liberal MPP Teresa Piruzza made it official at a news conference at the site Friday morning.

Ontario's original commitment was $2 million dollars. But the city already spent that much buying the property.

It was confirmed that the city already has $3 million in hand from the province and another $4 million may be possible, if approved.

"The Ontario government remains committed to funding the full cost of the clean up, property acquisition and demolition to help ensure that this project is brought to successful completion," Piruzza said.

Budget Environmental Disposal of Hamilton submitted the lowest bid for cleaning up the site, and it was more than $4 million dollars.

Heavy equipment is expected to arrive next week to start demolition. Removal of asbestos is first. The work is to last into the summer.

Neighbour Frank Harshaw remains skeptical. He accused the city and province of mishandling the whole situation.

"I have no confidence it will come down. None," he said. "We've put up with trucks barreling down here, graffiti, not taking care of the lawn, looking like a dump. They use the property as a gravel pit. Just endless."

Coun. Fulvio Valentinis represents the neighbourhood and said it's great news that the province is coming through with more.

"Now we're going to move forward and the province has said they were going to be there to assist us in covering the cost of the demolition and cleanup, so we're looking forward to this announcement," he said. "We can move forward and get that property cleaned up and move on to the next phase, which is the redevelopment."

Valentinis said cleaning up the property will be a "relief" for the people who live nearby.

The city now owns the whole site, after purchasing two residential lots for 90 thousand dollars. Council still has to decide what to do with the property.

"We're only interested in real development, real concrete plans," Mayor Eddie Francis said. "There's one in particular that we've been working on for some time. I'd still stay it's probably 50/50 but you'll hear about that in the coming weeks."