By Pepper Parr
February 8th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
There was a lot of jabbering by the City of Burlington and the Halton District School Board about the sale of what used to be the Robert Bateman High school.
The School Board had announced that the property was surplus to its needs except for some pace they would use for the Gary Allen Learning Centre which is just up the road from the high school.
While this is just a concept a this point the Board of Education is in for a 25 year lease and Brock University is looking for a new home for one of their faculties. It could be a win win
Both the City and the School Board issued statements recently without adding anything new to a project that has been reported to have a $50 million price tag attached to it.
Some people have asked if there asbestos insulation in the building – no answers to that question yet.
There are significant benefits to the City if the project ever results in a sale that doesn’t kick the stuffing out of the budget and the various reserve accounts.
The plan at this point is to provide the HDSB with a 25-year lease to accommodate Gary Allan Learning Centre, which provides adult, alternative and continuing education programs, and language instruction programs for newcomers, among others.
It is a very large piece of land that the Board of education no longer needs and the city thinks it can be re-purposed.
The Board of Education will pocket a healthy sum – the question that hasn’t been asked – is what will happen to the Gary Allan Learning Centre property once its operations get moved over to the Bateman property.
And what will the name of this new landmark be?
My question – Who pays the rent for Tech Place ( is not Tech’s present lease coming to an end), space occupied by the City of Burlington and the Burlington Public Library? My guess is the taxpayers of Burlington ( please correct me if I am wrong).
To spend this money without any resident input is certainly not acceptable. We have a performing arts centre that continually comes back to the City for funds, and a hospital levy that was to end but has become an infrastructure levy. I won’t even discuss fiasco of The Pier.
For those residents who say they are happy to spend this money to prevent a high-rise development I ask – Why is this structure not being used for subsidized housing or perhaps a longterm care facility for those who cannot afford to go into private ones?
For a city that now is looking into a housing strategy it would seem prudent to use this property as a first step in meeting this objective.
We have had enough of disappearing school grounds that people enjoyed, as part of their neighborhood, remember Strathcona. Thomas Riddell is bang on in terms of use – don’t know enough to judge on ownership.
Gary Allan aka General Brock should be turn into a Community Center and public park
with a leash free dog park .. In other words the city should be the land
Parkland should be for citizens, not animals.
The part of the story saying this land is worth $50 million and you want to throw it to the dogs? Puleeze, where are the leash free cat parks and parakeet parks going to go?