RESIDENTS COULD BE OUSTED
The Catholic school board wants to build a new school, but would need to expropriate land first,
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) wants to raze a block of 30 townhomes in North York to build a permanent home for a secondary school that has been leasing property for decades.
Dr. Mary Chakkalackal, one of the residents fighting the board, is a Catholic who doesn’t think the board’s actions are in line with its own values.
“This doesn’t seem like a just way of doing things,” said Chakkalackal.
Along with other residents in the Bayview Ave. complex near Cummer Ave., Chakkalackal received an expropriation notice on Monday.
The notice gives residents 30 days to ask for an inquiry into the matter.
As a public body, the school board is permitted to take land without consent — while still compensating the owner — if it’s in the broader public interest under provincial legislation.
Angelo Sangiorgio, a senior official with the TCDSB, said the board’s preference isn’t to expropriate, and that is still has to be voted on.
“We take these matters very seriously — it’s not a frivolous and quick decision,” said Sangiorgio, adding that the number of homeowners being asked to sell is unusual.
The school trustee for the ward and chair of the TCDSB, Mike Del Grande, was not available for comment on Tuesday.
Chakkalackal, a family physician, bought her townhome in 2008, wanting to downsize from her home in Markham after her daughters started to leave home. She even relocated her medical practice to the area.
“It was a huge move for me,” she said.
Even if the expropriation is formally opposed, she may still have to move again.
If the notice is challenged by residents, a third party will hold a hearing and make a report to the board on whether the expropriation of land is fair, reasonable and necessary. But ultimately, that report isn’t binding. It’s taken into consideration by the board, which will vote on the matter. That process could take “several months,” said Sangiorgio.
Chakkalackal said she’ll be consulting a lawyer on next steps. She first heard about the school’s plans to move to the area in 2013, but says it wasn’t clear that the board was serious about expropriation until last year.
Sangiorgio said expropriation wasn’t the preferred option, but the board has been clear that it has been looking to acquire properties shortly after purchasing a public school adjacent to the townhomes in 2013. TCDSB has bought four homes since and is negotiating with two more homeowners.
The former public elementary school was bought to give St. Joseph’s Morrow Park Secondary School a permanent home. The school had been leasing property since the1960s and it changed hands in 2008, prompting the search.
“The girls are homeless — they don’t have a home, so we needed to find them a place that they could call home,” said school trustee Maria Rizzo, who was the trustee for the all-girls school until the boundaries of her ward changed.
Rizzo says she’s never supported expropriation, but the result of the uncertainty students faced has been declining enrolment, currently hovering around 600.
This affects students by limiting programs available to them, said Rizzo. Additionally, leasing a school takes money away from operating budgets, which means spending less money on kids in classrooms, she said.
Sangiorgio says that amounts to $600,000 to $700,000 a year in leasing costs. The cost of buying 30 townhomes is going to run the board $28 million to $30 million. The board paid $940,000 for one of the townhomes it bought last year.
Chakkalackal plans to continue to fight, even though she has been told she has little chance of keeping her home.
“It’s a lot to handle, knowing very well that they are very powerful and that the law, for whatever reason, is approving this,” she said.