Toronto's Catholic school board is hoping to bulldoze a row of 30 townhomes in North York in order to build a new high school, but some of the residents are reluctant to leave.
The new secondary school would be located in the Bayview and Cummer Avenues area, and will house approximately 850 students. Many of those students currently attend St. Joseph's Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School, an all-girls high school located nearby.
The lease for that school expires in three years, and the Toronto Catholic District School Board says its only option is to construct a new school in the Bayview and Cummer neighbourhood.
The board previously proposed to build a three-storey building on that land, but the plan was rejected by the community. The board is now seeking more land to extend the property that was purchased from the city’s public school board a few years ago.
On Monday, 18 residents in the North York area were served a notice of expropriation.
Under the province's Expropriation Act, a public agency can take property "for a purpose deemed to be in the public’s interest, even though the owner of the property may not be willing to sell it."
"No one likes to appropriate anything, but in the end, the common good is that a high school is required in that area," chair of the TCDSB Mike Del Grande told CTV Toronto on Monday.
So far, four residents have sold their homes to the TCDSB and eight more are in talks with the board.
The board says they are offering market-value for the homes, and emphasize that the notice of expropriation should not be understood as an eviction notice. They say residents can still enter into a voluntary purchase agreement.
But not everyone is willing to re-locate. Dr. Mary Chakkalackal, one of the 18 residents who were served a notice of expropriation, says she moved her practice to the area so she could be closer to home.
"This is an unjust way of dealing with a community," the family physician said. “My life, my community, the church I am an active member of … here, this is our life."
Chakkalackal and the other residents have 30 days to respond to the notice of expropriation. If the homes are bulldozed, Ward 24 Coun. David Shiner says it will cost taxpayers approximately $30 million. He says he is not opposed to building a new school in the neighbourhood, but wonders if there's another option.
If the properties are expropriated, the TCDSB says construction on the new school is slated to begin in a year-and-half. During that time, the board says residents can stay in their homes until they find a new one.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness
