Strong Mayor Tim Bryson says the municipality doesn’t have much information to tell the public about the status of the former Almaguin Highlands Secondary School.
Around mid-September, the municipality issued a demolition permit for the empty building but as of the last weekend of September, the demolition had not begun.
See: Demolition permit issued for former Almaguin Highlands Secondary School
The former high school was replaced with a new building in September 2011, and in 2014 the Near North District School Board sold the old high school to a numbered Ontario company for $5,001.
Four years later in 2018 that numbered company sold the building and the 43 acres of land it sits on to another numbered company for $75,000.
This second numbered company continues to own the building and land.
Bryson said that under Premier Doug Ford the Ontario Government has shown a “historically unprecedented high level of investments in our local community of late.” However, Bryson said he can’t say the same about the former Liberal provincial government.
He says when the Liberals announced that a new Almaguin Highlands Secondary School was going to be built, missing from that announcement was what were the expectations for the soon-to-be shuttered former building and what would happen to it.
Bryson said that in general closed "provincial institutional buildings with no 'written in stone' abandonment plan is not ideal for municipalities and communities.”
“We need to think more about what we do with old buildings when we build new ones,” said Bryson.
“What will happen to the old building?”
Bryson says a municipality’s primary concern is always first and foremost the health, safety and well-being of the public and municipal staff.
Bryson says when there is no plan for the upkeep, monitoring or demolition of shuttered facilities, as they become old and dilapidated, they can become a concern for municipalities from a fire safety and bylaw standpoint.
He says this becomes a cost to the municipality since it will need to regulate the activity that goes on at the site.
From a community’s esthetic qualities, Bryson adds that shuttered buildings become eyesores in the community.
The Strong mayor also says that there is a scenario where municipalities are left “holding the bag” if the owner doesn’t pay the taxes on the property ultimately forcing it to seize the asset for back taxes.
This also creates a future scenario where the municipality may have to tear down the building at its expense.
Bryson says he can’t comment on the current owner’s plan for the old Almaguin Highlands Secondary School property, believed to be owned by a southern Ontario company.
However, on behalf of the municipality, Bryson is hopeful and trusts that “the valuable land the old school building sits on will contribute positively to the community in the future.”
Bryson said as far as he knows, taxes are not in arrears with the property.
Bryson said that perhaps it’s time for the Ontario Government to take the lead to develop usages for old buildings or have an abandonment plan in place.
Residents are aware that an excavator is on site and are also wondering what will happen next and when.
Years ago, there was talk that a seniors’ complex would be built at the site and now homeowners are asking if that’s still the plan assuming the old high school comes down.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
