Monday, March 4, 2019

Is the Canadian government selling the Ontario Staff College on Union Street in Kingston?

During the year 1971 my family and I lived in a brand-new townhouse at Eldon Hall Place, Kingston. 
     This will not be the first time that Corrections Canada has "divested" property in the City:
St. Helen's and Stone Gables - 440-442 King Street West. - 2014 - Canada Lands Company.
Prison for Women - 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard - 2007. Canada Lands Company.
Kingson Penitentiary - 560 King Street West - The title will be transferred to the Canada Lands Company. According to the Federal Directory of Real Property website the Pen is still Crown property. However, that information may be out of date. The Pen was decommissioned in 2013, the same year that the Kingston Penitentiary in Portsmouth, England was shut down. Canada Lands Company will be transforming the Pen and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour into another Distillery District, with residential towers, townhouses, restaurants and a hotel.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau never funneled Corrections Canada property in Kingston to private real estate developers.
In 1969, Queen's University bought prison farm land and a limestone quarry near P4W to create another campus. The Penitentiary Water Tower is still located on the property.
During the early 1970's, a subsidized housing development called Eldon Hall Place was created on Collins Bay Institution land. Eldon Hall Place was eventually privatized by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Another CMHC property that was privatized was located on 780 Division Street:

The Kingstonian Apartments located at 780 Division Street were sold a few years ago. The classified ad is from the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Why I believe the Ontario Staff College is being sold:
1.)  Every other Correctional Service of Canada property in the vicinity has been decommissioned except for the museum at 555 King Street West---P4W, the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House, the Pen, Stone Gables, St. Helen's and the Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre, located at 508 Portsmouth Avenue.

2.)  A new Training Academy and a new Community Correctional Centre are being built on the grounds of Collins Bay Institution.

3.)  443 Union Street West was significantly renovated to provide a temporary  location for the Training Centre:
     "Although the interim location situated at the Correctional Services offices at Union Street West will serve as the current facilities, a new permanent academy was announced Friday. It will be built on the grounds of Collins Bay Institution...Significant renovations were done on the interim location to prepare it for opening...with a total cost of $7.4 million dollars." (From: Mark Gerretsen announces permanent correctional services academy in Kingston" by Alexandra Mazur, Global News---June 29, 2018).
Why is 443 Union Street a temporary location and not a permanent one? I am sure that City politicians  have had their sights on this parcel of land for a while, apparently there is a shortage of affordable housing in the community.

4.)  443 Union Street West is prime real estate and several residential towers and townhouses could be constructed on the 14.544 acres of land. This land should be green space in perpetuity.


Corrections Canada Ontario Staff College, 443 Union Street West, Kingston Ontario.




3 comments: