U of Where? A rural pipe dream

East Gwillimbury bids for university — once it gets new sewer lines installed

Welcome to EGU — the GTA’s next suburban university campus, nestled in the middle of sprawling farmland in the quaint community of East Gwillimbury.

The northern municipality of York Region, with a population of more than 22,000, may not have sewage capacity for the next few years, or even a high school for that matter.

But this is a community with a bigger vision in mind: to become your choice destination for post-secondary educa- tion in Ontario.

“We are going to be a very unique community; there will not be another like ours in the GTA,” said East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson. “We have the amenities of all other communities, but we will also have a lot, almost 70 per cent, of green open space.”

It’s not exactly an academic pitch, but an abundance of developable property could be enough to land one of the three proposed campuses up for grabs.

The province is looking to open up new satellite campuses for 60,000 more post-secondary spots by 2016 — and is expected to lay out criteria for selection this fall.

The town of Milton, the fastestgrowing suburban area in the GTA, is also in the running, and has been in talks since 2007 to acquire a satellite campus of Wilfrid Laurier University.

Milton already has one up on East Gwillimbury: most people know where it is.

“I have never heard of East Gwillimbury,” said Sarah Medel, a nursing student at Ryerson University. “But I guess if I lived close by, and it offered my program, I might consider it,” she said.

Securing a university isn’t just a pipe dream for the municipality, which is made up of various hamlets and villages.

A plan for a university in Queensville has been in its Official Plan since 1989.

The original vision was for a private university campus modelled after Harvard University, where students, faculty and staff could “live, work and play.”

But that’s a pipe dream that has been held up, literally, by the lack of pipes.

“We have been waiting for sewage, the physical part of the sewage, for years,” said Councillor Marlene Johnston. “That’s now expected to go in within the next two to three years,” she said, just in time for the dreamed-of university to open its doors. But now those plans could be up against another roadblock — internal discord within East Gwillimbury council. In an August report to council, staff suggested the town look at a more industrial site in the Green Lane corridor, with closer access to public transit, to put forward in its bid to the province. But many councillors say the surprise decision to change locations was made without the support of council or local residents, who helped shape the Queensville plan over the past decade. “If the university bid is focused on lands that have no plans, no approvals, no environmental studies, no sewer capacity, and thus no ability to house students, then East Gwillimbury is not likely to be successful in their bid,” Johnston said. “So we need to focus on a more realistic location, the Queensville location,” she said. Johnston says building the campus in a more commercial area will force the university to be modelled like a commuter campus, “And who will want to come here?” said Johnston. The mayor says the town has a GO station, VIVA and YRT buses and will be directly off the new Highway 404 extension expected in two years, and thus have the capacity to move people around.

But Johnston doesn’t buy it: “Why would you want a university like that anyways?”

Mayor Hackson said the town is open to exploring all the options and has organized a charette at the end of September to discuss ideas.

A campus could help put town on academic, infrastructure map

Hackson says her priority is simply landing a campus that could help get the town on both the academic and infrastructure map.

“It will be an economic boost to us,” she said.

“But it will also change the feel of the community.”

That is, if East Gwillimbury can pull it off. If the town gets a university, the province expects all other facilities, including housing, to be open by frosh week 2016.

“That’s a tall order for us … but we will pull out all stops from our side,” said Hackson.

Including, most likely, ensuring that people can flush.