'Somebody knew something': More questions arise about former King Greenbelt lands proposed for future hospital

Newmarket man wants integrity commissioner to discover how discussion took place before provincial announcement

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 6, 2023
Lisa Queen and Laura Broadley

If King Township hadn’t pounced so quickly, asking the province to fast-track land at Bathurst Street and Miller’s Sideroad for a new Southlake hospital for a nominal fee to the developer who recently purchased the land, Gordon Prentice wouldn’t have been suspicious.

Council’s motion was adopted on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022.

It was only on the previous business day, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, that Premier Doug Ford publicly announced the provincial government was removing 15 parcels of land, including the King site, from the Greenbelt as part of Queen’s Park’s push to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade.

Ford had previously promised that the environmentally sensitive Greenbelt would not be developed.

The speed with which King council moved to push onto the province’s radar the Bathurst and Miller’s site -- which had been purchased by developer Rice Group in August for $80 million -- for the future Southlake Regional Health Centre, as part of future development now expected on the site as a result of the province’s Greenbelt decision, rattled Prentice.

Both King Mayor Steve Pellegrini and a provincial spokesperson say nothing underhanded or nefarious has taken place.

Prentice is a Newmarket resident who ran unsuccessfully for deputy mayor in last fall’s municipal election. His campaign focused on his belief that municipal politicians should not accept donations from developers, so that mayors and councillors aren’t beholden when developers come to council seeking approval for their multimillion dollar developments.

After King passed its motion about the site, which sits on Newmarket’s doorstep, Prentice began digging.

He found out from the township’s clerk that on Nov. 1, Pellegrini and officials from Southlake and the Rice Group had a meeting where the developer said he would gift a portion of the Bathurst and Miller’s site for a new hospital for a nominal fee.

On Jan. 22, Prentice asked the provincial integrity commissioner to investigate how the issue could have been discussed at the meeting before the province’s announcement unless inside government information had been obtained by developers.

Prentice filed freedom of information (FOI) requests with Southlake last month, asking for its record of the Nov. 1 meeting.

“If I were in Southlake’s position, I would think this (the Rice Group offering a portion of the King site for a nominal fee) is terrific. Here is this benefactor offering land, which is very, very close to the existing Davis Drive site and, more than that, we’re going to get it for a peppercorn or $5 or whatever,” he said.

“The hospital has every reason to be celebrating this. But the whole problem is that when these discussions were taking place, the land was still in the Greenbelt.”

A hospital is allowed to be built on land in the Greenbelt under current legislation, so a proposal for a new Southlake site on the Rice land would have gone ahead even if it hadn’t been taken off, Pellegrini said, adding that he’d been in discussions with other landowners in the vicinity about a new hospital site for a number of years.

When the Rice Group closed on the sale of the land in August, Pellegrini approached them about his idea.

The Rice Group is interested in ancillary uses, such as doctors’ offices, that come with a hospital, he added.

“We had no influence on the minister of municipal affairs or the premier in terms of pulling lands from the Greenbelt. Quite frankly, our council doesn’t support that,” Pellegrini said.

Southlake has no comment on the issue, spokesperson Lindsey Furlanic said.

The Rice Group has not responded to requests for comment.

No inside government information was given to developers before the announcement about the Greenbelt was made, Victoria Podbielski, spokesperson for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, said.

“No one from the province was present at this alleged meeting, nor was anyone notified prior to the decision that their lands would be removed from the Greenbelt,” she said.

The NDP is now asking questions about the King site, too.

“Protected land became extremely lucrative overnight, and Ford donors seem to have benefitted enormously from land they had just purchased. Maybe they were just incredibly lucky. But something doesn’t seem right to me,” incoming leader Marit Stiles said on Feb. 1.

“This finding indicates to us that somebody knew something.”