Update on the Wesleyville Lands Purchase

Friday, April 1, 2022
For Immediate Release 

The Municipality received notification from Ontario Power Generation (OPG) that the province has stopped the sale of the Wesleyville lands in the Municipality of Port Hope from proceeding.

This notification is a last-minute change and was unexpected for Council and staff, who have been preparing for the closing of the sale, which was scheduled for Thursday, March 31, 2022.

In their letter, the province advised that the lands merit assessment by a newly proposed provincial initiative called the Centre of Realty Excellence (CORE).

The CORE program is intended to create consistency across the public sector for prudent management of government property. The program seeks to determine priority underutilized and/or surplus properties aligned with key programs, including affordable housing and long-term care.

To our knowledge, this proposed program does not yet have a governance model, framework, or timeline for implementation.

We have a binding, unconditional purchase and sale agreement with OPG in place, approved by OPG Board of Directors and Port Hope Council.

For the past two years, we followed proper process and due diligence to reach the binding agreement. We negotiated a fair deal in good faith.

Right now, we have a lot of questions. We want to be open and transparent with the community and we are sharing what information we have, which is limited.

We have reached out to the province to understand their concerns and to demonstrate how our strategic plan aligns with the mandate of the CORE program.

We continue to be committed to purchasing the lands and have extended an invitation to the province to work with them through the CORE process. We still believe this is a real opportunity for Port Hope.

We are eager to work with the province to find a way to get back on the path we planned together with OPG – a path that Council supported unanimously and that is best for Port Hope’s future.

“I was very surprised by the abrupt change of plans for this land purchase, since the agreement was approved by both parties,” states Bob Sanderson, Mayor of the Municipality of Port Hope. “We followed a proper process, signed a binding agreement, and shared the good news story with our community. We are disappointed with this outcome.”