By Staff
November 24th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Finding land that is cheap, free if possible, to build needed housing on has everyone looking at what they might have in their inventory.
Burlington has yet to offer any of the land the city owns but the federal government got created and offered a 28 hectares property that once housed a federal prison in Laval, Que. into housing.
The St-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary operated from 1873 to 1989 has been largely empty for 35 years and has fallen into a state of decay.
Stone walls and a guard turret could become features in a housing community on federally owned land.
It was the second federal prison built in the country and the only francophone federal prison in Canada.
On Tuesday, Ottawa gave the prison a new lease on life by opening it up to development by adding it to the public lands bank, a list of 83 unused federally-owned properties that can be used to address
“Where appropriate, all of these federal lands will remain public through low cost leases to reduced construction costs and support the building of more affordable homes,” said federal Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
Due to the site’s history, its imposing stone walls and proximity to the Rivière-des-Prairies, the prison was designated a national historic site in 1990.
Can we expect some creative ideas from City Hall?
great idea Mr. Gamble. This country needs MORE prisons and longer sentences so re-vitalizing it to house deportees and convicts would be a great use of funds.
This is a Liberal “slight of hand”. Selling off crown property is nothing new, there’s an entire federal department devoted to this. Poilievre has proposed that the government get more aggressive and sell of more land and unused buildings for home construction. The Liberals took this idea, with a twist, we’re not going to sell the land but rather lease it to the developer to build on, and the owner of the home will never own the property. As the Liberal talking points go, developers are evil and will only exploit the situation, however the land will be auctioned and likely sold at market value. The owner of the homes will never own the land, and the value of these homes will always lag comparable homes where the owner for full deed and title to the land on which the home sits.
If the federal government no longer needs the property, for heaven’s sake, just sell it, and get out of the way (more bureaucracy, more paper work, more complicated sales transactions, more complicated mortgages and financing), use the money to pay off our debt and allow people to own their land.
Perhaps it could “as is” house any non Canadian Hamas sympathizers terrorizing our Jewish citizens before their deportation. Judging by the activity level in our cities we might fill it.