The future of the Campus of Care project in The Blue Mountains is cloudy after council voted to essentially put the project on ice.
At its committee of the whole meeting on April 30, council was scheduled to receive a report from staff with several recommendations for how to extend town servicing to the Campus of Care property at 125 Peel Street.
However, procedural confusion on the file emerged when council voted to table the servicing report after Coun. Shawn McKinlay mistakenly voted the wrong way. The passage of the motion to table meant no further discussion could happen on the matter and council could not provide any additional direction to staff.
With no servicing plan in place, the Campus of Care project is essentially on hold. The committee of the whole decision is not final and must come to a full council meeting for ratification.
The Campus of Care plan is for a long-term care home, retirement residences, labour force housing, multi-family housing units, a daycare, pickleball courts and other amenities.
In the report, staff made several recommendations for how to service the Campus of Care property. They included: full services (water and sewage) on Peel Street South, replacement of a deficient watermain on Alice and Baring Streets, building Peel Street South to a full urban cross-section with a multi-use trail and drainage and general road improvements.
The report generated significant public opposition at the meeting. The council chambers were packed for the meeting and multiple speakers appeared before council opposing the report’s recommendations. Local residents questioned the report’s recommendations and asked that a secondary planning document be developed for that area of Thornbury before any development proceeds. Many of the comments from members of the public also spilled over into questioning the Campus of Care project as a whole.
After hearing from the public, council was set to discuss the servicing report further. At the start of the debate, Coun. Gail Aridel attempted to read a resolution she had brought forward in Dec. 2022 to halt the Campus of Care project altogether. At that time, council defeated her resolution.
However, Coun. June Porter, who chaired that portion of the meeting, ruled Ardiel’s request out of order because it did not specifically relate to the servicing report before council.
Coun. Paula Hope then moved that the servicing report be tabled by council. Ardiel seconded the motion.
“This is a massive project. It is unprecedented in Thornbury,” said Hope, who said tabling it was appropriate. “That is the best way to deal with this.”
McKinlay objected to tabling the matter noting that it did not provide any direction to staff on how to proceed on the servicing project.
“Nothing moves forward. There are no solutions brought forward by tabling,” he said.
Hope then suggested that the motion to table be amended to ask staff to provide more information on the concerns council had about the servicing report: including a proposed multi-use trail, traffic safety and potential loss of trees.
This led Clerk Corrina Giles to enter the discussion and explain a motion to table could not include requests for further information as that would make the resolution contradict itself. Giles suggested council defeat the motion to table and then prepare a second resolution directing staff to provide more information.
“If the table motion passes, it’s tabled. There is no more discussion on this report,” said Giles.
When it came time to vote, the motion to table passed in a 4-2 vote with Ardiel, Hope, McKinlay and Coun. Alex Maxwell in favour. Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon was absent.
Immediately after the vote, McKinlay indicated that he had voted incorrectly and asked to reverse his vote. The only procedural path for a vote reversal was a motion to reconsider, which would require the votes of five members of council to proceed. McKinlay immediately made the motion, seconded by Mayor Andrea Matrosovs.
“I heard clearly that Coun. McKInlay, he clearly articulated it, did not want to table it,” said Matrosovs.
Hope disagreed.
“A vote is a vote. We should not go into reconsideration often. I don’t see this as a reason,” she said.
The reconsideration vote was lost 3-3 with Matrosovs, McKinlay and Porter in favour, which ended the debate and discussion.
The matter is not entirely closed. The decision was made in committee of the whole and will come back to council on May 13 for a final decision.
The Campus of Care concept includes:
- 160-bed long-term care home (The Blue Mountains has received an allotment of 160 long-term care beds from the province for the project)
- 160-beds attainable labour force housing
- 300+ multi-family units
- Centralized amenity hub
- A daycare facility consisting of 80 spaces
- Community gardens and open greenspace
- Pickleball courts and a playground
- 250+ bed retirement living
- Enhanced naturalized stream corridor and integrated and landscaped trail network
In May 2023, the town announced a $15 million deal with two companies - Skyline Development Acquisitions and peopleCare to advance the project. In the deal, the companies would purchase 18.7 acres of the property from the town, with the town retaining 11 acres on the northern section of the land for future uses.
