The Blue Mountains council has asked town staff to prepare a report outlining the full costs of the ill-fated Campus of Care project.
At a committee of the whole meeting on Jan. 13, council unanimously passed a resolution requesting a detailed breakdown of all costs associated with the Campus of Care project that was terminated by the town in November 2024. The project, which would have included a long-term care home, affordable/attainable housing, workforce housing and a daycare facility, was cancelled after projected development costs escalated making the project not financially viable.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, council received a brief follow up staff report on the Campus of Care from town staff.
Acting CAO Adam Smith delivered the report and said the town continues to be “keen” to continue discussions with peopleCare (the company selected by the town to build and operate the long-term care facility that would have been part of the Campus of Care) about the future use of 160 long-term care beds that have been granted to the town by the provincial government.
The report, however, did not satisfy members of council who wanted more financial details about exactly how much the whole project cost local taxpayers. Coun. June Porter expressed concern that the financial breakdown of the Campus of Care costs had not been delivered as part of the 2025 budget process.
“(The report) is still lacking a lot of information, which I would have expected to see,” said Porter, who moved a motion directing staff to provide a full report in “spreadsheet format” that would detail all expenses and funding sources for the Campus of Care project from Sept. 2021 to present day.
Earlier in the day, local resident Paule Reale had made a presentation to council questioning the financial figures publicly available on the Campus of Care. Reale requested a full accounting of the project that would explain all expenses.
At the time the project was terminated by the town, a staff report on the matter indicated that $150,000 had been spent on the project.
Porter’s motion requested full accounting for all engineering, legal and consulting costs along with the costs of staff time spent on the Campus of Care project.
Coun. Gail Aridel seconded the motion from Porter and said her “digging” on the matter suggested more than $150,000 had been spent.
“I would like to see a financial breakdown of all funds spent to date on this project,” said Ardiel, who noted that, at the time the project was cancelled, council was told a financial report would come forward early in 2025. “I would like a more concrete date.”
Council approved the resolution in a 7-0 vote.
