For three years, non-profit groups have been fighting for a chance to use the old St. Pat’s-Alexandra school. On October 9, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled against their case, siding instead with a company that wants to redevelop the property—leaving the groups with few options. Margaret Casey, of the North Central Community Council, spoke with The Coast about what the future holds.
Tell me how you’ve been dealing with the decision from last week.
We were disappointed, surprised and shocked. We feel so strongly that this is a missed opportunity for the community. We’ve been trying to look at options that could result in some success. We’re not sure yet how we’re going to move, but we’ve had a number of meetings amongst ourselves and have met also with our legal counsel.
What have you been talking about?
We have reviewed the decisions, so our options are to step away and say too bad, that’s done, or to have some conversation with the developer [JONO Developments] to see what might be worked out. I think that’s a bit unrealistic, not because they’re not interested in the community, but this is business and our community needs in terms of space are large. The other option is to seek leave to the Supreme Court of Canada to see whether this case would meet the criteria. We have to think very seriously about that option before we would go ahead with it.
Why would you have to think seriously about going to the Supreme Court?
If we were to lose, we would incur all the costs. We would have to be sure we had funds to back that up before we embarked on a course like that. But there is a serious principle here: the shutting-down of options for community groups. So we have to determine whether we should pursue an appeal on those grounds. This is not a frivolous or retaliatory move—it would be a question of saying, we profoundly disagree with what has happened here, we think it’s unfair and we think it’s worth attention at the highest level of the judiciary.
There’s a chance that if you apply to the Supreme Court, they might not take it.
The criteria are very strictly adhered to. We don’t have any unrealistic expectation that this would be accepted, but that doesn’t diminish in the minds of some of our group the sense that we are obligated nonetheless to make the statement.
Let’s go back to JONO. If they continue to say, as I think they have said all along, they would rent 10 percent of their development to non-profit groups, would you go for that? Yes, they have said right from the beginning they would set aside 10 percent of the property for the community groups to rent. We certainly appreciate that offer. But our plans are much larger than 10 percent of that space. In anticipation of our plans, we sent out tentative invitations for expressions of interest in the space, and we were deluged with interest in the gym to the extent that it literally could have been rented 24/7. And there was a lot of interest also in the rest of the space. So space in the JONO development might work out to some degree, but we absolutely would not be able to put on the programs that we had envisioned for the larger space.
Interview conducted and condensed by Hilary Beaumont
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This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2014.
Use the money you would spend fighting this issue and going to the Supreme Court, and instead invest that money with the developer with the intent of designing free community space into the new development.
Any options against HRM for not following their/our policies? Perhaps a suit against them to earn your cost to fight for this site with a stay in development of the site till a settlement is reached there. HRM needs to pay for this. They should of never sold this site in the first place as they did. Or.. if you loose in Supreme Court. Then seek cost from HRM and damages to settle in a new location.
Thanks to a bureaucracy with no vision, who don’t even seem to be aware of (much less follow) their own policies, we as a city are now in a legal bind that requires us to sell this school to a private developer, when three of the strongest community organizations in north end Halifax have been working diligently all along to put it to better use? This is beyond disappointing. Halifax staff and council should be ashamed. What a missed opportunity.
NCCC’s website is demanding the taxpayers give them 150 million dollars. Their plan is to convert the entire St Pats A site into more public housing a la Uniacke Square.
Yes because we all know that “community” really would have benefited from a worn out old building with massive overhead costs just to keep the place running.
Mickey MacDonald opens the Palookas on Gottengin street with the hopes of getting poor neighborhood kids in an off the street in the same neighborhood.
He had free boxing classes, brought in groups from the school etc. He had to close the whole place because the turnout was so low and he couldn’t even get kids in there for free.
Do people really think this space would have been utilized? Another case of some bleeding heart community group that wouldn’t even know what to do with the building if they did indeed get their hands on it.
This neighborhood need to be developed> Its need gentrification. Ask anyone not from that neighborhood what their feelings are on it. The same answer across the board. Dangerous, crime filled etc etc.
I’m of the opinion that ghettos like the square should be bulldozed so real development can take place and fill the black hole (no pun intended) that is that part of the North End.
I know that’s a harsh view to take, and its not intended to fuel any kind of racist agenda, but the truth of the matter is, any big modern city long ago pushed the slums to the outer reaches of town and in turn moved crime out of the downtown core. Its not a pretty solution but its the only real solution if that neighborhood is ever going to be anything other than a bad reputation.
“Its not a pretty solution but its the only real solution…” – That’s not a solution, nothing is solved, the “problem” just gets moved around…
I was involved in the closing of the school as I lived in the neighborhood at that time and I read the engineers reports. The building was NOT worth saving then, and after being mothballed for several years it can only be in worse shape now. The building is NOT worth saving – period!!! I don’t understand why these groups / people will not accept that. While they are well intentioned and very good organizations that I support, taking on trying to re-use this building would have destroyed them as it would have been a money pit, wasting every cent of the ever increasing costs to restore and then maintain it, IF it could be restored at all!! There is only one option for this building, tear it down!