CollingwoodToday asked the candidates running for council in The Blue Mountains four questions about the issues facing the community.
The following responses were submitted by the candidates. The answers have not been checked for accuracy; they represent the candidate’s platforms and opinions.
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Responses are presented in alphabetical order beginning with candidates for mayor. All responses received by the deadline have been included in the text below.
Q: The Gateway attainable housing project and the Campus of Care project on Peel Street are two significant capital projects that will have to be dealt with during the coming term of council. What are your thoughts about these two projects and where do you see them going in the future?
Candidate for mayor: Joe Halos
Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation (BMAHC) is in the process of reviewing proposals for this project. This will shed more light on their plans. BMAHC is a separate corporation from the town and will determine its own course. Most recently they have been trying to determine quorum for their meetings, how to provide or not provide meeting transcripts, and sending out surveys. I don’t see this as a fast-track issue.
More importantly, in my opinion, is the planned expansion of the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant, which borders this property and may impact the planned development. This is a much-needed expansion and is planned to commence in 2023 and be complete by 2024. Until this project is complete I believe it would be unwise to build anything on this site.
I refer you to the issues discovered in the building of our present town hall as an example to elucidate what can go wrong with these projects. I would want to be sure that we do not have any surprises before allowing any development. The site is presently 40 per cent treed, it will be interesting to see how much of that, if any, will be retained.
On Campus of Care, I see this as an incredible opportunity for TBM as it will help address one of the most pressing issues in our healthcare system, which is the overcapacity of hospitals dealing with long-term care beds.
The issue is that many patients (usually older) after a hospital stay, still need care but have nowhere to go, so they remain in acute care hospitals and the system was not designed for this, and backs up accordingly.
The provisional funding for 160 LTC beds is dependent on the project being complete by 2026, so it is imperative that this move along quickly. This project will also create a number of local jobs in the healthcare field, including staff, attainable housing as well as other needed amenities. A multi-use recreational centre is also proposed on this site, but is not part of the funding envelope.
There is a provisional Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) which will greatly help in the planning process. I see this addressing LTC, attainable housing, healthcare jobs, and recreational needs all in a master planned development.
This, in my opinion, is a significant opportunity for the town, and we must service the site, finalize plans, find a builder, and start building. To further this initiative I have taken the opportunity to discuss the issue with MPP Brian Saunderson with regard to the funding and he has promised to do all he can to help with this endeavour.
Candidate for mayor: Elizabeth Marshall
There has been much discussion, throughout the town, regarding “attainable housing” project(s), which still haven’t broken ground, yet. That could be a blessing as it seems, at least legislatively, there is no such thing as “attainable housing.”
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) “affordable housing,” which is lawful, is defined as “costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s before-tax income.” These projects (Gateway, Campus of Care, etc.) need to come to a complete halt until the new council has an opportunity to look into this issue.
The new council will need to have a full inventory of all of the land owned by the TBM and, if needed, use the legislation to fulfil the municipal portion of the “affordable housing,” in conjunction with the county, the federal and provincial governments.
Residents, with whom I have spoken, think the 160-bed Long Term Care (LTC) facility is a good idea, but they do not feel that the taxpayers should be paying for the housing of staff. The entire complex plan, including infrastructure, will have to be looked at by the new council to see if it’s needed and/or viable. With the delays and the many questions asked about these projects, perhaps everything should be put on hold until the new council can make an informed decision.
Candidate for mayor: Andrea Matrosovs
Background and on-site work has been done this term for the Gateway project to get shovels in the ground in the next term. I support the Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation (BMAHC) as an advocate, catalyst, and provider of attainable housing in our community. The reduction of the original proposed height down to three storeys, unfortunately, results in increased environmental impact and additional rent required on each unit. In the near future, we will see what the response is to the request for proposals in terms of economic, sociocultural and environmental sustainability of building within that restriction.
The Campus of Care will be a micro-community for seniors, health-care staff, their children and community groups connected to the greater community with transit and active transportation options. This council successfully initiated this project process and it is crucial we continue the progress in the next term. The project includes: 160 long-term care beds, 160 attainable units for the health care labour force, a retirement home, and a variety of housing options for seniors on the campus (both attainable and market supply) that will fill an urgent need in our community. I fully support the mandatory and preferred features this council has named in addition to the provincial requirements such as 80 daycare spaces, an enhanced naturalized stream corridor, green building components, best design practices for dementia care, and WELL building standards to improve the well-being of residents, workers and visitors.
I envision a dynamic community hub where members of our whole community can join the campus residents in indoor and outdoor activities together. Events for Life, providing programming for adult individuals with special needs, is a potential community partner in both the Gateway and Campus of Care projects. Designated housing and program activities such as running a café are initiatives I support fully.
Candidate for mayor: Tony Poole
The Gateway and Campus of care initiatives represent significant investment of resources in two major areas of concern: attainable housing and healthcare.
Our key to sustainability is to address housing availability and health-care services for our growing population. The viability of these plans is dependent on selecting the right strategic partners who will partner with the town in implementing build options that will expedite development solutions that address community needs and that are financially viable, which include public/private partnerships. An example of this might be to have a partner such as a private developer enter a partnership to build a new health-care campus and or potential conversion of existing property into attainable/affordable housing. The key will be finding the right partners who share our vision. This selection will have to be a priority for our next council. Important also will be having a discussion about both affordable and attainable solutions.
Candidate for council: Gail Ardiel
Just how are we going to do this? I don’t believe anyone on council has the expertise to do this. Shovels were to be in the ground three years ago. All we have is an empty lot. We need qualified people who can bring all the components together.
The town cannot afford to pay millions and millions of dollars to build housing. The staff also have no experience in this endeavour. This is not a function of the town. The town can allocate lands to non-profits to be developed and that is all. The town needs to modernize and streamline the process, by cutting the red tape and speeding up approval times. There are companies who do this each day.
Why reinvent the wheel? The information is out there, we just need to be smart about how we develop projects in the town.
That is the same for the Community Campus of Care. Long-term care homes are all full. It is important that seniors can age in their communities, and have family and friends visit without travelling one hour or more to visit. Both projects should be developer driven with the town facilitating in any way they can (reduced developer charges or none) as well as prioritizing those applicants.
Given the discussion at the March 2, 2022 council meeting, report CSOPS.22.03, staff are abandoning the proposal to single-source and will be shifting focus to recruiting a manager of special projects to oversee all aspects of the servicing needs for the proposed Community Campus of Care. This will include all the required steps to facilitate the request for proposal process including project scoping and regulatory requirements, preliminary design, final design, contract administration, construction, and commissioning. The final financial impacts are: the approved 2022 budget includes a capital project of $11,500,000 for the pre-servicing of 125 Peel and the proposed Community Campus of Care site. Included in this capital project is also $500,000 for staffing resources.
Once again there are companies and investors who do this each day. We as a community must think wisely, can the town afford to do all these items, without experts?
Candidate for council: Paula Hope
I am looking forward, with great excitement, to the completion of both the Gateway attainable housing project and the Campus of Care on Peel Street. As one of our best federal politicians put it, “...the only test of our character that matters is how we look after the least fortunate among us. How we look after each other, not how we look after ourselves."
By addressing the needs of our more vulnerable citizens with these two projects, the town will be meeting its higher role as a facilitator of economic, physical, and social health. I am proud of the fact that the 40+ attainable housing units that will be delivered by the Gateway housing project will go a long way toward reaching the 50-100 attainable housing units target that the town has set for itself for the west end.
It will be a major challenge to construct this building within the next year or two (let’s hope that it is with green building standards while meeting excellent design standards and the Official Plan requirements).
The second, most daunting challenge will be administrative, ensuring that residents are paying housing costs that meet their budget requirements while securing a strong fiscal position for the housing corporation.
As for the Campus of Care, which is the town’s most complex project, my concern is that the “WELL” standard is implemented to ensure the appropriate care for our aging citizens, along with the employment of green building standards, and that complex community needs are met efficiently and cost-effectively.
For both projects, it is critical to ensure the public is consulted at every step of the way. With that goal in mind, I suggest that members of the community are brought into the Campus of Care project as soon as the new council is elected. As for the BMAHC, it is my view that the composition of the representation to the housing corporation board from the town be comprised of the CAO and one councillor, working toward a corporation that is staff-driven, and governed by a board with strong and appropriate community representation.
Candidate for council: Alex Maxwell
The Gateway project has certainly drawn both positive and negative remarks from the citizens. Based on this, the new council will most likely ask for some form of public review and once all the information has been gathered, the new council will be able to make an informed decision on how to proceed.
I will be in full support of any method that works in the public's and taxpayers' best interest.
The Campus of Care project is needed, yet I'm troubled by how it was delivered and that if it is delivered as currently presented, it might unintentionally set precedents for future projects. For this reason, I believe that a new council will need to fully engage the community before we can move forward.
Candidate for council: June Porter
The Gateway attainable housing project is under the oversight of The Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation (BMAHC) a not-for-profit organization and was established in 2013. While it has and was anticipated to operate as an independent organization as stated there is a need for greater transparency with respect to the membership of municipal directors, i.e., and their voting with respect to BMAHC items on a committee of the whole or council agenda.
Given the request for proposal having been released with decisions scheduled for Nov. 28, 2022, there needs to be a monitoring of their finances. The town has provided financial support from taxpayers dollars and land against which a line of credit can be established, and further funding may be increasingly a difficult sell. Therefore, it will be paramount that both further board and any municipal membership on the BMAHC is chosen with care. The project has not benefited from transparent public communication regarding what has been done.
It was also very unfortunate that the BMAHC chose to focus on only one option, when a range of projects may have ensured one having had shovels in the ground by now. Any future work with respect to affordable/attainable housing would benefit from a regional approach for a number of reasons, including economic efficiencies, transportation efforts and lastly, ensuring developers on a level playing field across South Georgian Bay.
Campus of Care is a project that needs to move forward and be successful for our area. There are a number of aspects of this project which I have found very disappointing for the residents of The Blue Mountains, and I communicated them to town staff, the task force and council by means of correspondence, public comment, and email. My primary concern has been the WELL standard has not been made mandatory in the request for proposal. This is so incredibly sad as the WELL standard incorporates many concepts; the most important one is "optimizing and achieving indoor air quality; strategies which include removal of airborne contaminants, prevention and purification." This is essential in protecting the vulnerable population in a long-term care/ retirement facility and housing from the annual flu and infectious diseases such as we recently have experienced.
I would, if elected, fight for this to be included in the new build despite it not having been made mandatory in the RFP. As I have noted in a public comment period to council there are already LTC homes under construction in Ontario which have the WELL standard as mandatory. I would also commit to working with Georgian College to confirm that they are advocating for the funded healthcare and other related professionals seats the Campus of Care would need to operate when opened. The Campus of Care also needs to be supported by childcare and transportation to ensure that workers can be available for work.
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