The City of Ottawa was aware that Ottawa’s largest school board, currently under
provincial supervision
, would
list a vacant school on Draper Avenue for sale
, but said it didn’t fit the city’s “operational needs.”
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra has
repeatedly signalled
that every option must be considered for school boards running deficits, including selling surplus properties or transferring them to other school boards with growing enrolment.
Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Chandra Pasma and College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson said Tuesday that they had both been surprised to learn the former Grant Alternative School was
up for sale
and had only found out about it after a sign was posted at the front of the 5.53-acre property.
The community should have an opportunity to discuss the future of the property for uses such as affordable housing, a medical or recreational facility or a combination of these, Johnson argued. Pasma contended that the process had lacked transparency because OCDSB supervisor Bob Plamondon, who was appointed by the province last year, is not obligated to hold public meetings and elected trustees no longer make decisions.
“We understand that changes to a school property can raise questions in the community. Decisions about declaring a school surplus and putting it up for sale are made by the province and the school board,” Lily Xu, the city’s interim director of housing solutions, real estate and investments, said in response to questions from Postmedia.
“In this case, city staff were aware through regular communications with school board staff of the pending decision to dispose of the property in a public offering at market value,” she said. “The city was made aware of the school board’s final decision to sell the school site at the same time as the general public.”
The
former Grant Alternative School
was closed as a school in 2017. The site was circulated to the city in 2018, Xu said.
“At that time, staff shared the information internally to assess whether the site could meet any city program or operational needs and departments did not identify a requirement for the property,” she said. “As such, the city had no basis to move forward with a market-value acquisition.”
Staff have continued to monitor the site’s status as part of the city’s regular real estate oversight, Xu said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the property was leased as a
COVID-19 assessment and care centre
. That lease was terminated in early 2023, and the building became vacant.
No operational needs from the city have been identified since the temporary lease, Xu said.
Provincial rules set out how school boards dispose of surplus properties, and municipalities do not have roles in deciding when or how properties are listed, she said.
“School boards are also not required to consult municipalities before selling a site,” she said.
But Xu’s statement did not sit well with Johnson, who demanded clarification from senior city staff about why she was not in the loop that the school would be put up for sale.
Johnson said city staff knew the property would go on the disposal list, but not when it would actually be listed.
In an email exchange between Johnson and Debbie Stewart, the city’s general manager of strategic initiatives, Stewart said when the real estate team was notified that the property would be listed for sale in 2018, the information was circulated to a number of parties, including the ward councillor at that time, Rick Chiarelli.
In January 2020, city council officially declared a “
housing and homelessness emergency
.”
No interest was identified in 2018, Stewart said. “This the process by which the real estate team evaluates interest in a property. The team will only undertake further assessments of a site if a need is identified through the normal circulation process.”
The city was not formally advised of the most recent school site offering, Stewart told Johnson.
“The school board is not required to do so under the new regulations. In the fall, staff reached out to inquire about school sites and were advised that the site was still identified to be listed for sale (as it has been since 2018), but timing was not known or was not disclosed.”
As the property was only listed on the market in late January, the new internal circulation has not yet been undertaken to determine whether any city departments are interested in acquiring the site, Stewart told Johnson.
“Real estate staff will initiate a second round of internal circulation to identify any programmatic or operational needs for the site,” Stewart said.
On Thursday, Johnson said she was determined to “untangle this mess and get to the facts.”
“I am also frustrated that staff continue to ignore the importance of this land to the community despite my raising this as a priority over the past two years,” she said.
Under changes in regulations under the Education Act, introduced in June 2025, Ontario’s education minister may direct a school board to dispose of a school property under certain circumstances, including when the school board has an accumulated deficit.
As of November, the OCDSB had
a cumulative deficit of $12.1 million
, money it will have to start repaying to the province.
At the same time, OCDSB enrolment has been lower than expected. On Nov. 24, the OCDSB’s audit committee heard that enrolment increased by more than 200 students, but that was 1,130 students short of projections. The Ottawa Catholic School Board reported an increase of 1,657 students as of Oct. 31.
The existing school structure at 2625 Draper Ave. is in good condition and has 25,000 square feet of usable space, including offices, classroom and a gymnasium, according to the listing for the property with the commercial real-estate firm Avison Young. The property is zoned institutional and is located within one kilometre of the Pinecrest LRT station that will open as part of Stage 2 of the Confederation Line.
The site “is considered to have strong development potential as its highest and best use. Buyers may also opt to retain the school for institutional-use purposes.”
The listing did not include a price for the property.
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