Mary Lake long-term-care development in King opposed by some local groups

Mary Lake LTC will be ‘well served by public transit’: Quinto Annibale

Yorkregion.com
July 27, 2023
Simone Joseph

A proposal by the Augustinian Fathers (Ontario) Inc. to expand its monastery to include a three-storey, 160-bed long-term-care centre has been met with opposition.

The public should have had more input in decision-making relating to the long-term-care home, according to Susan Walmer of the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.

“(A committee meeting) was the only opportunity the public had to respond ... there was such a high level of response because there's no other public meetings; it’s not coming to council,” Walmer said.

Quinto Annibale, corporate secretary and solicitor of the charity the Augustinian Fathers (Ontario), Inc. (AFOI), says several environmental studies have supported the building proposal.

“The conclusion is that since the long-term-care home (LTC) is to be built on the disturbed footprint of the existing monastery, no adverse impact to the environment will be caused by the development,” Annibale said.

But St. Rita, the name of the proposed LTC home, has been opposed for a number of reasons, including fear of the environmental impact, worry that the location is too isolated and concern the long-term-care home will be larger than it should be.

Mary Muter, chair of Georgian Bay Great Lakes Foundation, believes Mary Lake isn’t the place for a nursing home. Mary Lake Monastery is at 13760 Keele St. The campus has natural features including woodlands and wetlands. The land is north of the King City settlement area, within the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan Area, and is designated both “countryside” and natural core.

“Elders should be located where there are local amenities so that, for instance, staff can come and go," she said. "Seniors should not be packed off into an isolated place such as this, nor should staff have to.”

But Annibale said St. Rita at Mary Lake LTC will be “well served by public transit.”

“York Region has assured us that the Keele Street bus can easily be extended so that it passes the Keele and 15th Sideroad intersections,” he said.

There is also GO service in King City and existing and planned YRT and VIVA connections, he said.

To open a long-term-care centre, the Augustinian Fathers had to prove one already existed at their monastery. The Fathers have proven this over and over again, Annibale said.

In December 2019, King staff released a letter: “ ... staff is satisfied that a long-term-care facility use has historically occurred on the Mary Lake property and continues and/or has been intended to continue to do so.”

Vito De Simini, a Mary Lake volunteer for 26 years, says the monastery did not house long-term care.

“To look at the original two rooms comprising the infirmary, measuring some 250 square feet, and try to justify something which is many, many, many times greater in size is totally unjustified in my mind,” he said.

Annibale counters, “Volunteers would not have been allowed access to the private areas nor would they have any knowledge of the personal medical affairs of the friars and other religious members.”

Coun. Debbie Schaefer drafted a resolution opposing planning staff recommendations and opposing approved changes to Mary Lake’s zoning requirements. The resolution said: “this development application should not have been recommended by staff.”

Also, it read, it is the opinion of several local groups “that this proposal does not conform with the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.”

Schaefer withdrew the motion.

“After discussions in the closed council meeting with the township lawyer, other councillors and staff, I recognized that withdrawing the resolution was the choice that I needed to make,” Schaefer said. “I am unable to provide more insight, as what is discussed in a closed meeting is confidential.”

Two King citizens who made Freedom of Information requests related to the development more than two years ago received documents in early May.

Included is this comment from the Augustinian Fathers: “There is currently an existing wing of the monastery located on the Mary Lake property with beds where residents receive around-the-clock long-term nursing care.”

Annibale concludes: “Our experience, including that of UniversalCare Canada Inc. (LTC operated by the Ministry of LTC), supports that residents occupying long-term-care beds will greatly benefit from the natural beauty and serenity of the Mary Lake campus.”