High School Construction Delay: Council Accountability
Asked by Melissa Marshall · 2 months ago
Funding for our new high school has been available since 2021, yet we are still years from breaking ground, while Ontario communities funded after us are already under construction. The Province did not create that delay, council vote did.
For the record: A 2023 closed-session decision delayed the project, with individual votes not readily available. In December 2024, the vote to advance the school was
YES: Norcross, Gabrek, Masters, Jacks and Foster;
NO: MacLellan, Cox and Harrison McIntyre.
Biss and Rapin recused.
Question:
If you were on Council or the Board when these decisions were made, how did you vote, and why?
That delay cost this community roughly two years. What did we gain that justified it? What materially changed about the site, plan or agreement between the 2023 decision and the eventual approval?
If elected, what specific steps will you take to move this project forward now?
Shira Harrison McIntyre's answer
The school board delayed the project, not council. They came to council with one option for a site to build the school and wouldn't share why no other spot in the entire municipality was an appropriate spot to put a school. They already knew that the Banting Homestead was not the preferred site for some of council as it was gifted to the town as a memorial to Banting. The school board was not co-operative or transparent in their process. That being said, a deal was struck months ago and yet nothing has been done on the site. The responsibility for moving the project forward at this point sits squarely in the lap of the school board and does not rest with council.
