Ontario’s education minister hinted his government may force Hamilton’s public school board into doing something with a former downtown secondary school that’s been sitting empty for several years.
Stephen Lecce suggested the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) has been “hoarding” Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary on York Boulevard, which closed in 2019, and says his office will soon be reaching out to local boards to ensure vacant properties can be “unlocked” and potentially sold.
In referencing The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, which was passed last June to identify “excess property” and craft strategies to utilize them, Lecce said the province is seeking to create partnerships to alleviate a lack of long-term care spaces and affordable housing where it can.
“So we’re committed to making sure that those parcels of land are being used for the benefit of either education or some other public good,” Lecce said.
“Obviously, we’re not going to permit billions of dollars of assets to be sitting.”
Last year, Ward 7 trustee and former HWDSB chair Dawn Danko told Global News that they had been pursuing the demolition of the site and the creation of a new elementary school allowing for the consolidation of Strathcona Elementary and Hess Street Elementary.
The property was also earmarked for a possible community hub providing space for city partners like Hamilton Health Sciences, the Hamilton Community Foundation, Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes Inc., and YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford.
However, the idea failed to get approval from the ministry after four tries.
Other ideas have also been pitched to the board by numerous groups and residents over the years, including the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS), suggesting the empty secondary school could be a factor in alleviating the city’s homelessness problem.
None of the proposals were deemed feasible since a significant financial investment would have had to be made to remediate the site.
Danko told Global News Thursday that the board is still planning to use the site and is taking a “proactive and responsive approach” to all of their available properties.
“We look forward to successfully utilizing the space in the future, in a manner that best serves current and future HWDSB students and families and the broader Hamilton community,” Danko said.
She went on to say school boundaries are continuously reviewed and that assets that no longer reflect the needs of the community are sold and surplus reduced “where and when possible.”
Lecce said school board properties across the province could only be sold on the public market after refusals from coterminous boards, like the Catholic Board and French boards, then Infrastructure Ontario.