Parks Canada may be selling $8.3 billion dollars worth of Crown property.

"Internal Parks Canada report looks for ways to make money by selling, transferring assets." by Dean Beeby, CBC News, 4 days ago.
 Parks Canada property in total is worth $16.3 billion dollars, which means that KPMG is recommending that half of the entire portfolio be sold off.
Apparently 183 dams and bridges may be divested. The term "bridges" means:
highways
roads
trail bridges
structural culverts
(Google: Parks Canada-EVALUATION OF ASSET MANAGEMENT-PWGSC-2009.)
This massive fire sale of OUR roads, highways, trail bridges, dams and culverts must be stopped.

A Parks Canada 2017-18 Departmental Plan states that:
"..Parks Canada is responsible for ensuring that irreplaceable heritage buildings and structures are protected and passed on to future generations..."

A previous government permitted the sale of railway hotels in Canada to Fairmont, including:
Jasper Park Lodge - Alberta - CNR.
Banff  Springs - CPR.
Chateau Lake Louise - Alberta - CPR.

Why did the Government of Canada not buy the CPR hotels, when they had the opportunity to do so? Because they did not care about ordinary Canadians, about our sense of national pride and patriotism. Landmarks are worth fighting for, I cannot imagine France selling the Eiffel Tower of India selling the Taj Mahal to a foreign government. Our landmarks should not be owned by foreign royalty and New York City investors.
     For years the Fraser Institute has been calling for the privatization of federal Crown property:
CN Tower in Toronto.
Canadian Mortgage and Housing land and buildings.
Canada Post
Canada Place in Vancouver.

Fraser Institute report.

Fraser Institute report.

The Ontario government saved the Don Jail and Guelph Correctional Centre.

         The provincial government is planning to sell or demolish five abandoned hospitals in Ontario, including London Psychiatric Hospital.
 The Don Jail in Toronto was re purposed, and is currently an administration building for Bridgepoint Health. A Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" and episodes of the tv show "Suits" were filmed at the Don. There are many alternatives to leveling former prisons and hospitals. A former Cornwall jail is a tourist attraction.
(work in progress)

Kingston Pen Rotunda.

Don Jail Rotunda.

There is only one Kingston Pen.

     Too many people are opposed to plans to change the Kingston Penitentiary.
Community Groups
Friends of Kingston Penitentiary
The Frontenac Heritage Foundation
The Coalition of Kingston Communities
Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee.

Chris Ball, a Kingston municipal election candidate for Portsmouth District, said:
     "The biggest thing that everyone's mentioned when I'm at their door is change, between all the redevelopment that has been happening in Portsmouth District; Kingston Pen, the Provincial Campus and the Prison for Women...There's a big concern about the changing character of neighbourhoods..."( From: A YouTube video, Google "Kingston Municipal Election Candidates: Portsmouth Village" by Elliot Ferguson, Whig Standard.)

 Bill Glover, a city councillor for the Sydenham District, told a Sun newspaper reporter:
     "It's not inconceivable that they could level the whole site." (From: "Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status"  by Peter Hendra, Toronto Sun, September 2012.)

The Taylor Hazell Architects Report recommends that the entire site be given heritage designation, and local architectural historian Jennifer McKendry stated that ten irreplaceable limestone buildings at KP are slated for demolition. (From: "Concern Raised Regarding the Penitentiary Planning Process" The Coalition of Kingston Communities.)

Petitions
Save the Kingston Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Greenspace
#ygk Challenge: Save Kingston Pen and the Regional Treatment Centre
ipetitions-Don't Erase History-Protect the Penitentiary.
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Opinion: Please keep Kingston Pen and Portsmouth Harbour as the historical sites they are for future generations.
     The Kingston Penitentiary with its beautiful buildings and the unique history should not fall prey to the seeming determination to fill it with yet another housing development, high rise condos and the introduction of roadways.
     Dream big! Keep the Penitentiary as it is externally with its beautiful setting, walls and buildings. Renovate the interior of the buildings for use by the public as almost all the proposals suggest...Do not remove the existing Penitentiary walls, it then loses all significance as a Penitentiary, this was already done at the Women's Pen. Once buildings and walls come down they are gone forever!
Sincerely
Dixie Dittburner, Portsmouth.
(From: SouthWesternOntario.ca November 2016.)
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MOTIONS
Consideration of Designation
THAT 525, 555 and 560 King Street West also known as Kingston Penitentiary be referred to the Historic Properties Research Working Group for consideration as a property of cultural heritage value.  Moved by Mr. Taylor, Seconded by Mr. Duerkop. CARRIED.
Mr. Downey asked that the wall around the building also be included as other designated buildings did not include the walls in the designation and now these walls have been removed such as what happened at the Frontenac County Court House.
(From: City of Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee Minutes - Meeting 11- 2012.)
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Haunted Walks calls for Kingston Penitentiary to Become "Alcatraz of the North".
     All Canadians can help preserve this National Historic Site by writing a short email to:
1.) Site Planning Consultants: portsmouthvisioning@planport.ca.
2.) Mayor Bryan Paterson: mayor@cityofkingston.ca.

Excerpts from a letter published by the Kingston Whig-Standard, from Haunted Walks Founder/CEO Glen Shackleton:
     "Although The Haunted Walk started in Kingston, we have also given tours of the old Ottawa jail for more than 20 years...Jail tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry worldwide...Condos are springing up all across the country, but there is only one Kingston Penitentiary."

My father George Shaw and Governor General of Canada Roland Michener.

Las Vegas, Nevada and Juarez, Mexico - 1973.

Juarez, Mexico.

The Landmark Hotel can be seen in the distance. 

The Landmark Hotel.

Las Vegas airport.

The airport.

Las Vegas Nevada August of 1973 I travelled from Lethbridge, Alberta to Las Vegas on a Greyhound bus. All I could think about was my boyfriend and our time together. I did enjoy the scenery in Montana and Idaho.

I parked my Air Canada bag at the El Cortez Hotel on the Strip. Then I took photos of the Flamingo Hotel, Caesars Palace, a hotel under construction called the MGM Grand and a wedding chapel. I met a taxi driver originally from Portugal, his name is Jean-Paul, and he offered to show me all the sights in and around Vegas, including the nightclubs and the desert.

Jean-Paul was born in May of 1950, and he drove us to a beautiful disco where we played songs on the jukebox by Diana Ross, Archie Bell and the Drells (Tighten Up) and Carole King. Jean-Paul told me he met Ann-Margret, Elvis, Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Wayne Newton and Sonny and Cher. He said he would take me to Wayne Newton's ranch, where he raises Arabian horses. Jean-Paul and I visited the Landmark Hotel, which is owned by the famous producer and inventor Howard Hughes. In the lounge a friend told him (referring to me) "She's a beautiful girl, you're a lucky man." We had a gorgeous meal of breaded cutlets, shrimp cocktails, soup, rolls, salad, green beans, olives, strawberries and shortcake. I felt a bit uncomfortable, wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt instead of a maxi-dress like all the other women. But Jean-Paul said that many rich people including Howard Hughes, dress down because they do not want to be kidnapped. For all they knew, I could be the daughter of a Greek shipping magnate.

The Irish Gentlemen provided the musical talent and they wore matching red velvet tuxedos. Then we travelled to Jean-Paul's tiny house on the outskirts of the city, and he played the album "Aftermath" by the Rolling Stones. I sent my boyfriend a postcard so that he will believe that I'm truly in Vegas.

Jean-Paul said he dated Wayne Newton's sister, and she looked a lot like me---blonde and beautiful. 

Update-Kingston Penitentiary redevelopment plans.

Workshops Dome.

  The Main Rotunda is being preserved, the Workshops Dome and buildings are not.
Parks Canada
South Workshop Recognized Federal Heritage Building - Constructed from 1842-1849.
Description of Historic Place
"The South Workshop, also known as Building C-1-C-6, at Kingston Penitentiary is an impressive 19th century, industrial building with a temple facade and a Greek cross plan. This solid, stone building is made up of four large wings radiating from a central rotunda."

The Main Dome is building B-01, while the South Workshop buildings are buildings C-01 to C-05.(From: (PDF) Opportunities and Constraints Report-City of Kingston-Page 9/140.)

"Heritage re-use is expensive and risky, difficult to break even (unless subsidized.)" (From: City of Kingston-Projects-Planning-Kingston Penitentiary June 2017-Page 23/59). The Pen is one of the most historic, famous landmarks in the world--- Canada's Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. Yet plans are already being made to level buildings and remove walls to permit the construction of housing, new pathways and roads. Will Kingston be a tourism mecca, when the Pen, Prison for Women, Stone Gables, Isabel McNeill House, Collins Bay Institution and Rockwood Asylum are gone? Collins Bay Institution is known as "Disneyland North". Rockwood is on a list of 135 "ghost buildings" that Infrastructure Ontario is either selling or demolishing.  The Big House, Prison for Women, Isabel McNeill House and Stone Gables were divested by Corrections Canada.

The Government of Canada wanted the property surrounding the Pen to remain public:
     "After the environmental site assessment and risk assessment were completed,clean-up options were presented to CSC. The option chosen was to excavate and replace the impacted soil, so that the land would be revitalized and restored to green space. The re mediated area will no longer be leased for boat slips or long term boat storage, so the refreshed space will be open for the public to enjoy!"

All the land within the red lines will remain public, according to the document "Kingston Penitentiary Harbour property-Correctional Service of Canada" 2015.

The Central Rotunda or Main Dome of the Pen.

The London, Ontario Psychiatric Hospital is on the market.

     Infrastructure Ontario is selling one of its "ghost buildings" for $694,000 dollars. The hospital is a Registered Heritage Building, but apparently that means nothing.
Heritage Value
The London Psychiatric Hospital, established as the London Asylum for the Insane between 1869 and 1870, is an impressive symbol of the innovative and humane programs encouraged by the Hospital's two supervisors, Henry Landor and Richard Maurice Bucke. (The top 3 photos were taken in 2017.)

The London Infirmary, 850 Highbury Avenue, London. 

The Chapel of Hope, London Psychiatric Hospital. 

The 162 acre landscape is similar to the Kingston Provincial Campus, which Infrastructure Ontario plans to sell. Rockwood Asylum is located on the Provincial Campus.

LPH photo is from a real estate website.

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Dr. Richard M. Bucke was a world famous psychiatrist and mystic, he wrote the following books:

Cosmic Consciousness-A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Walt Whitman.

Man's Moral Nature - an essay.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Jesus the Christ.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Honore De Balzac.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Francis Bacon.

The Cosmic Consciousness of St. Paul.

Infrastructure Ontario does not care about the fact that Dr. Bucke was a pioneering psychiatrist; that hospital patients built the Chapel of Hope; that the Infirmary was a Victorian building; that the City of London, Ontario thought the buildings were historic.

Just as they don't care about the fact that Penitentiary inmates built the Rockwood Asylum; that the hospital was constructed with limestone and could last for a thousand years; that the hospital was a registered heritage property, according to municipal and provincial records; that William Coverdale designed Rockwood and many of the most historic buildings in Canada:

Kingston Ontario landmarks designed by William Coverdale
St. Helen's Complex
Sydenham Street United Church
Roselawn National Historic Site of Canada
St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church.
Kingston Penitentiary (where Willam Coverdale was also a master carpenter.)
Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre
Prince George Hotel
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The Canada Lands Company was involved in the divestiture of St. Helen's Complex in 2015:
Federal Notice of Surplus 440-442 King Street West, Kingston
     "The sale of the property to any public or private purchaser would be subject to the negotiation of a purchase price approved by the Canada Lands Company..." (Google: Report COU-15-213 City of Kingston).