By Cecilia Nasmith
When it comes to new uses for the former Brookside youth correctional facility, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini told Cobourg council Monday that the ball is in their court.
Its closure almost a year ago was good news in more ways than one, Piccini said. The fact that it was occupied by only a handful of young people shows that early-intervention programs in place seem to be working.
Those young people have gone on to other facilities. The 63 full-time staffers have either accepted voluntary exit packages or been transferred to other public-service work. The schoolbooks and learning materials have been returned to the school board. The variety of contents, from furniture to kitchen implements, have gone elsewhere within the system.
And the building has been transferred to Infrastructure Ontario, “who manage the provincial real-estate portfolio,” the MPP said.
This step comes after several well-established stages.
First, the Ontario government gets the opportunity to express an interest in the property. Their failure to do so designated the property as surplus.
Second, the Federal government and broader public sector had that opportunity. Nobody's hand went up, Piccini said, and their deadline to do so was Jan. 21.
Third – now – the municipality and not-for-profit sector can express an interest, with or without private partnerships.
“That means the municipality has first right of refusal,” he said.
“This project will stay at stage three for as long as you wish it to stay at stage three.”
Potentially there is a fourth stage, where the property goes on the open market. Even then, he said, the municipality would not be frozen out.
Since the doors closed, the province has invested $6-million in the facility's decommissioning, which includes such tasks as asbestos removal and environmental assessment.
The Imagine Brookside input exercise Piccini announced last year got more than 500 submissions, and he listed the consistent themes that emerged – protecting the heritage Strathmore House that is its centrepiece, preserving the facility's green space, mixed-income housing, performing arts and culture, mental health and addiction, and job creation.
“This property is serving no one with the fence up. Let's take those fences down. Let's work together for a better, more inclusive future,” he said.
Asked for his own preference as to how the property might be used, Piccini said it would be housing.
For too many, he said, “affordable home ownership is but a dream.
“I think we really have to bend over backwards to have no barriers to building more homes – mixed-use, affordable and attainable housing.”
He also stressed his support for the heritage- and green space-preservation aspects.
“Those would be the priorities I would like to see, and I would like no barriers constructed artificially to prevent that,” Piccini said.
“I look forward to working with you as we imagine the future of Brookside.”
Though Brookside was the star of Piccini's presentation, the MPP also had updates on the good things he had done for the riding, including increasing base funding at Northumberland Hills Hospital more than 30% since 2018 and chipping in more than $1-million through the Hospital Infrastructure Renewal Fund to repair its roof.
Other health achievements include expanding the Community Paramedicine program which, he said, “enables our incredible paramedics to practice their skill set in a non-emergency setting.”
They are investing in beds and standards of staffing in long-term care, but also in ways to help the community's seniors age in place. These include up to $2,500 in Seniors Home Safety Tax Credits, local Seniors Community Grants and the Ontario Senior Dental Care Program.
Piccini is proud of the $1.4-million in support for Cobourg's roads and bridge repairs, which also support local jobs – speaking of which, he mentioned the Job Training Tax Credit of $2,000 for eligible workers retraining for a new career.
