Turning a former psychiatric centre into a cultural hub
A list of notables, including Charles Pachter, Don Tapscott and Margaret Atwood, envision new use for Huronia Centre
Could Orillia’s shuttered Huronia Regional Centre, which had a nightmare history as one of Ontario’s most hellish psychiatric hospitals, be reborn as a heavenly oasis for culture, creativity and innovation?
Yes, definitely, says futuristic business guru Don Tapscott, who grew up in Orillia. So does Canada’s most famous writer, Margaret Atwood.
Tapscott and Atwood are among the growing list of notables who have enthusiastically joined a cam- paign started by veteran Toronto artist Charles Pachter to turn the 200-acre site — which boasts meadows, forest, grassland, rolling hills, heritage buildings and 1,500 metres of waterfront on the shores of Lake Simcoe — into a kind of Banff Centre of the east. It would be known as the Huronia Cultural Campus.
Their vision: to create an international arts destination, with live/work artist studios, educational and teleconference facilities, exhibition galleries, a First Nations museum and a performance pavilion for outdoor summer concerts.
“This could be the most important development for the region since the arrival of Samuel de Champlain,” says Tapscott, a prophet of the digital economy, a bestselling author and an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “This project’s impact goes far beyond the cultural benefits.
“It would provide massive economic benefits for the region and the province. It could become the hub of entrepreneurship and a major creator of new jobs.”
Atwood predicts, “This could do for Orillia what the Stratford Festival did for the town of Stratford.”
Along with Stephen Leacock and Gordon Lightfoot, Tapscott is a member of Orillia’s Hall of Fame.
Half a century ago, as a teenager living there, he paid a visit to the centre, then operating as a hospital for developmentally delayed children.
“Dante’s Inferno comes to mind,” he says of the tour he was given along with others from his high school class. “The horrific images of that day are still emblazoned in my mind.
“So it’s very exciting to think of that place being turned into something wonderful: respectful of the people who lived and worked there, but reimagined as a centre for creativity, prosperity and freedom.”
In 2009, the Huronia Centre was closed by the government, after being operated for more than 100 years under various names, including the Orillia Asylum for Idiots and the Ontario Hospital School.
In 1960, it was the subject of an exposé in this newspaper by Pierre Berton, then a Star columnist. In 1971, there was a scathing report commissioned by the Ontario government. And the Star’s Carol Goar has chronicled its failings for years.
In the end, there was a class-action lawsuit by 5,000 former inmates who alleged they were abused, neglected and degraded in various ways when they were held there as children between 1945 and 2009.
The case ended in 2013 with a $35-million settlement from the Ontario government (up to $42,000 per victim) as well as an official apology and a promise to maintain the cemetery where many former inmates are buried.
Pachter opened a studio in Orillia a few years ago, which he is planning to expand. It’s a branch of his Moose Factory in downtown Toronto. Before then he had spent summer vacations in the area for decades.
When he toured the Huronia property, he was so enchanted by the site’s potential that he dreamed of turning it into a huge arts campus, within easy driving reach of millions who live in the Golden Horseshoe or go to Muskoka and Georgian Bay for recreation.
Pachter has spent a great deal of time and energy promoting the idea to people with the power, connections and wealth to help make the dream come true. Tapscott is just one of the influential players who have been become advocates for the project.
Among other well-connected Torontonians working on this are Gail Dexter Lord, Anne Golden and Bonnie Brooks. Orillia is re- presented by Don Ross, Will McGarvey, Anderson Charters, Dennis Smith, Deb Woodman and Fred Larsen. And Travis Shilling is from the Rama First Nation community.
But given the challenge, cost and sensitive problems that would need to be overcome, it could take 25 years or more to turn this vision into reality.
“This is a sensational location,” says Lord, Toronto’s globally respected museum planner and copresident of Lord Cultural Resources.
“And it has a fantastic location near Ontario’s cottage country and the GTA. But it’s a very sensitive site because of aboriginal history and the notoriety of the Huronia institution.”
Lord and Pachter were part of a small team of cultural and business insiders who tried to move the concept forward in an informal meeting with officials from various Ontario government departments.
Since the psychiatric facility was closed in 2009, it has been costing Queen’s Park about $5.5 million a year to maintain the property, which includes 20 buildings. One of the only current activities is the operation of a courthouse. Some of the old buildings (including cottages) would be repurposed, others demolished.
Plans for the future of the Huronia Cultural Campus might include a residential component.
The payoff would be not just cultural but economic: promising a boost for Orillia, which needs one, especially since many people lost their jobs when the Huronia Centre closed.
Pachter says his role was just to float the idea, get people thinking and see whether there was a way to make it happen.
“Charlie is not only an artist,” says Tapscott. “He’s also a great visionary and community builder. I give him a lot of credit and with this idea he is onto something big. Among the many transformative benefits, the campus could be an engine for innovation, entrepreneurship and jobs in the cultural and new media industries. I can’t think of a better idea for the stimulation of economic development and prosperity in the region.”
But the history of the site rules against the kind of intense commercial development, featuring retail outlets and tall condo towers, that might otherwise be used to finance a huge and ambitious cultural facility. Any attempt to introduce a highdensity giant would be an invitation to protest and political suicide.
And while no one has done a cost analysis, it’s easy to imagine the price tag for this kind of transformation could soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Banff Centre gets much of its funding from the Alberta government. Given its fiscal problems, it seems unlikely the Ontario government will pour millions into an eastern version of Banff.
Nevertheless, a big first step would be for the Ontario Realty Corp. to entrust the property to the Huronia Charitable Foundation, a new fundraising organization set up to kickstart the project.
“Any project of this magnitude takes time,” says Lord, who worked as a consultant on the last stages of the Lowry cultural complex, which brought new life to Manchester’s waterfront after its docks were closed in 1982. It took more than 20 years to get it done.
Before anything happens at Huronia, there will have to be a feasibility study and a detailed master plan, with hard-headed consideration of financial viability and partnership possibilities. The master plan would have to allow for developing the site in phases over many years.
Lord favours starting with something relatively small and inexpensive, such as an international sculpture symposium, which could attract a lot of attention to the property’s potential use as a cultural centre.
“I realize I may not see this come to fruition in my lifetime,” says Pachter, 72, “but my sense is it’s the right time and the right place for this to happen, and a lot of key people are ready for it.” mknelman@thestar.ca