The 74-acre Muskoka Regional Centre property in Gravenhurst continues to sit empty, with the town’s Mayor Paul Kelly saying they still have no timeline from the province on when it will be sold.
“All of the proponents have been sitting and waiting for an answer since January (2021),” Kelly says.
He, along with town council, sent a letter to Ross Romano, Ontario’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services, with a copy sent to Premier Doug Ford and Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller.
The letter comes a month after Kelly, along with council members, met with Romano during the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) virtual conference to discuss the next steps for the regional centre property. It’s the second year in a row that the two sides have met to discuss the issue.
Kelly says he left that meeting as frustrated as ever with no timeline given by the minister for when council will know more. “When we met with the minister in August, we were led to believe that this was going to be expedited and I was very clear to the public that we anticipated getting an answer on who the new tentative proponent would be in the fall,” he goes on to say.
With the municipal election set for October, Kelly says he wants to at least know who the proponent for the property is before election day.
“Our office has been in active contact with Mayor Paul Kelly, including reviewing his letter and meeting at the ROMA conference,” a statement from Romano’s office reads. “The future of the Muskoka Regional Centre is a priority our government. We will continue to collaborate and communicate with the communities in and around the Muskoka Regional Centre as well as other partners and stakeholders to ensure that it continues to benefit and serve residents for years to come.”
In his statement, Romano says the Progressive Conservatives are “the first (government) in over two decades to make any real effort to address the situation.”
Kelly repeated his belief that the province doesn’t view the properties’ future as a priority. “Here we are mid-February now and still no answer,” he says, adding he’s “not holding his breath” that they will get one anytime soon.
Kelly is the third mayor to be working with the province on the property’s future dating back to when it closed in 1994. “It’s been an incredible frustration,” he says.
Maple Leaf Schools were interested in the property in 2019, but in June of that year said they weren’t able to find common ground with the province and were no longer interested in the property.
“It’s been a frustrating experience not just for me but for the last 30 years for mayors that felt they got it to the finish line, and never got over the finish line,” Kelly says. “My sense is we’re approaching that same situation.”