A pilot program embedded in the provincial budget rolled out Tuesday is going to have a direct impact on Central Elgin and Elgin County.
Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack explains what is behind the Site Preparation Pilot Program.
Other than serving as the backdrop for the odd movie, the former psych hospital has sat empty for years.
Opened in 1939, the psychiatric hospital was replaced in 2013 by the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health located immediately to the north.
Flack stresses the land will remain in the Municipality of Central Elgin.
He adds the re-purposing of the property will bring much-needed housing to Central Elgin to support industrial development, particularly the PowerCo EV battery plant and other tenants of Yarmouth Yards, St. Thomas’ 1,500-acre industrial park located on the eastern boundary of the municipality.
Flack explains the province is in the process of determining the next steps, however more details will be “coming pretty quickly.”
