There is no doubt work is progressing rapidly over at Yarmouth Yards, the home of the PowerCo/Volkswagen EV battery plant. You only have to view the well-produced videos released regularly as part of the From the Beehive series, courtesy of the St. Thomas Economic Development Corp.
But, here’s a question for you.
How are those compensation talks with the Municipality of Central Elgin progressing?
Compensation in some form for the hundreds of acres of land that was either legislated/stolen from Central Elgin – depending on your point of view – to be annexed into the city.
Let’s backtrack for a moment.
About a year ago, Bill 63, the St. Thomas-Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act, 2023, saw the light of day and, in a heartbeat, was approved by the Ford government.
The bill allowed for the annexation of a portion of Central Elgin to the City of St. Thomas so that the latter could assemble a 1,500-acre parcel of land to attract a mega-industrial project to the city.
Little did we know that about a month or so later, Volkswagen would enter the scene as that mega-industrial project.
So a year later, Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan has concerns about the status of deliberations on what the municipality is owed for losing a hefty chunk of its industrial land.
Conveniently, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference was held at the beginning of this past week in Toronto and Sloan took full advantage of the event to continue bending ears.
We caught up with him Tuesday (Jan. 23) at the conference to check in on the status of those talks.
“We met with the Minister of Housing yesterday (Monday), advised Sloan.
“It was an opportunity for us to see the various ministers and say, ‘Listen, the province told us we would be made whole almost a year ago.’
“And sure, PowerCo is a tremendous investment, but if the province really wants the region to benefit, we think there should be some compensation for Central Elgin. But also the infrastructure we have left, the approximately 350 acres needs to be serviced.”
“And I think the Central Elgin residents and Central Elgin council have been quite patient, but it’s time for us to maybe segue from talk to action.
“We’ve had some very good opportunities and trying to get a deal worked out, and we’d like to have it done sooner than later.”
We sought to have Sloan explain what form that compensation should take.
“I think what most people should realize is we lost the majority of our industrial land. Councillors like myself looked at a solution to lower water rates, and lower taxes for the people of Central Elgin and that was based on us developing our industrial land.
“The Ontario government has been working with Central Elgin before the new council took over and listed it as one of the prime sites to invest in Ontario.
“And sure, PowerCo is a tremendous investment, but if the province really wants the region to benefit, we think there should be some compensation for Central Elgin. But also the infrastructure we have left, the approximately 350 acres needs to be serviced.
Sloan observed, “St. Thomas has just announced a $200 million wastewater treatment plant. What share of that is for Central Elgin or those who are trying to build houses or trying to build industry that will supplement, perhaps, the Volkswagen investment?
“If it is a regional solution, and the land did come from Central Elgin, then I think Central Elgin residents and, I can tell you, Central Elgin council figure there should be compensation for that.”
He continued, “We have, over the last few months, worked with many groups and have engaged a consultant to give us an idea of what the land is valued at. So, what we would really like to do is be able to get direction, and that’s one of the reasons we’re here (at ROMA).
“We’re trying to let the province know this has gone on too long. I think the longer it goes on, the more people forget.
“I have tremendous respect for Minister (Rob) Flack and I think as the province looks at this, they are the ones who can make this whole.
“The province put through Bill C-63 which allowed the land transfer. St. Thomas got the land, but Central Elgin gave the land. At the end of the day, there has to be compensation for that.
“Because, as I say, the majority of our industrial lands were taken a year ago.”
If the compensation comes in the form of money, is the municipality entitled to the same figure per acre the landowners were paid to surrender their farmland?
Or, is the promise of much-needed infrastructure of more value?
“We want to be part of the regional benefit. We want to be part of the success of the Volkswagen/PowerCo investment, but at the present, we have not seen how that can happen.”
“If you look at it, I believe there’s been land purchased, there’s a tremendous amount of infrastructure going in, and the numbers are high.
“When we met with the province last year in Toronto, MPP Flack put a meeting together and Minister (Vic) Fedelli said to me as mayor, “I will ensure that your industrial lands will be serviced.”
“And that service requires wastewater treatment. If a company were to come today, they would go to St. Thomas before they came to Central Elgin, in most cases.
“Because, with Volkswagen, the infrastructure has been detailed and that infrastructure would then go to the extra acres.
“I don’t think most people realize, this industrial park is not just Volkswagen. There are hundreds of acres that won’t be involved in the Volkswagen part per se, so there’s another piece.
“If you’re going to invest right now, you’d probably go to the industrial park that’s still in St. Thomas, as opposed to coming to Central Elgin. We want to be part of the regional benefit. We want to be part of the success of the Volkswagen/PowerCo investment, but at the present, we have not seen how that can happen.”
Sloan stressed, “At the end of the day, I think if the province is paying for the lion’s share of the wastewater treatment plant that’s probably going to be located in Central Elgin, but will serve St. Thomas, then the logic would be there would be access to the Central Elgin industrial lands for that wastewater.”
“(Infrastructure) is one component of the compensation. Mayor (Joe) Preston and I agree on one thing. He said the land they took was priceless. I agree wholeheartedly.”
A facilitator had been assigned to deal with the matter of compensation and we asked Sloan about that process.
“Central Elgin and St. Thomas have had an ongoing agreement on how to share wastewater treatment. In the past, each time Central Elgin has come to us and said we would like this much wastewater capacity from you, the negotiation was on land coming to St. Thomas. So, it can be part of the total compensation.”
“Since last February, we have had a facilitated discussion. There have been some bumps in the road. The original facilitator left the position and a new facilitator was appointed in November.
“I would say there have been ebbs and flows to those discussions, but now we are in January of 2024, nearing the anniversary of the deal and Bill-63, I think it is time, and I think the province has signalled that they want to put this to bed.
“And, Central Elgin definitely wants to come up with an agreement. So, I think the next month or two will be very important in ensuring that the lost opportunity costs for Central Elgin and its residents are addressed and compensation comes forward.
Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan
“We have a new council and the opportunity to reduce the taxes, especially water because it’s far more expensive than in St. Thomas.
“And, to alleviate that pressure on our water, the industrial lands were the way we were going to do that. And when the compensation package happens, that’s what we will do. We will translate that through to reduce the water costs and see what we can do about keeping taxes low or lowering them.”
In speaking with Mayor Preston this week after ROMA had wrapped up he stressed, “Lots of conversation about where do we want to end up with it and the urgency to solve it, but urgency without knowing where the result could be.
“We don’t have the taxation coming in yet from PowerCo, so we’re looking at it in many different ways.”
Let’s take a diversion for a moment and determine when will PowerCo begin paying municipal taxes?
“They will start paying as soon as MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) makes an assessment of their facility,” advised Preston.
“It will ramp up over the first five years. They will start paying the minute they are actually producing batteries in the plant.”
In the meantime, is it feasible the city may annex a residential area in Central Elgin to help bolster property assessment revenue?
We would all be wise to file that information away for future reference.
Now back to the matter of compensation.
Preston pointed out, “St. Thomas continues to pay the taxes on the land that was transferred to us to Central Elgin at the rate that it was.
“The legislation the province put forward – that caused this amalgamation to take place – also includes that the housing minister at the end of the day could get involved in the decision, too.”
I’m not sure Mayor Sloan would agree this process was amalgamation in the strictest sense.
Preston continued, “We are trying not to, from a St. Thomas point of view, tie too much to the future, but we want to make sure we compensate Central Elgin.”
And finally, does Preston concur that compensation could come in the form of infrastructure sharing?
“Central Elgin and St. Thomas have had an ongoing agreement on how to share wastewater treatment. In the past, each time Central Elgin has come to us and said we would like this much wastewater capacity from you, the negotiation was on land coming to St. Thomas. So, it can be part of the total compensation.”
A key takeaway here is that Preston believes that land was owed to St. Thomas as part of previous infrastructure negotiations.
Preston concluded, “But we need to continue to have open discussions and I know there are many who are saying this is taking a long time, but we’re less than a year from the Volkswagen announcement.
“We’re in a hugely busy year for St. Thomas getting the land ready and putting the services in place, but we continue to have the facilitation meetings.”
As we approach the one-year anniversary, Mayor Sloan surely will insist the glass is half empty, while Mayor Preston, on the other hand, will gladly point out the glass is half full.
Related post:
ROMA WRAP-UP
Needless to say, the priorities at ROMA for the St. Thomas delegation focussed on the core issues in the city’s strategic plan now being refreshed.
In our conversation with Preston, he noted, “Housing continues to be a very important area, and in our case finishing off Tiny Hope is one of the things we had a large discussion with the housing minister (Steve Clark) and Minister (Rob) Flack.”
Project Tiny Hope is an undertaking Flack has described as “the beacon of hope for all in Ontario.”
It will see 40 units of affordable housing take shape on a brownfield site at 21 Kains Street, the former home of Elgin Handles.
Preston continued, “And on our next Indwell project, also.”
Residents are now housed at the latest Indwell undertaking, The Station, located at 16 Queen Street.
“We also talked about some housing projects across the county,” continued Preston, “because our Social Services Department covers housing for all of the county.
“So, we talked about a project in Aylmer, Dutton and West Lorne.
“Housing was the first minister we saw on Monday morning and probably the most important for us.
But it didn’t stop there, assured Preston.
“We met with the environment minister (Andrea Khanjin) because we continue to talk about what to do with brownfields in our community. As we grow, we’ve some empty spaces throughout our community that can easily be used for housing perhaps, or other developers.
“But we need some provincial and federal help on the brownfield side.
“That was followed by a meeting with Minister (Stephen) Lecce from the education department. Our biggest ask there was for better communication between he, the local school boards and us.
“We fund our growth pretty substantially and we have a pretty good handle on what our growth is and what we will have to do to make it work.
“But we have asked for the school boards to reach out to us. Minister Lecche recently passed Bill 98 which asks school boards to do exactly that.
“Have conversations with their municipalities about what we both need and the chair of the school board has reached out and her and I have a meeting next week.
“So, some of this stuff is coming to fruition pretty quick.
“Our last meeting Tuesday morning was with Hydro One. They asked us to come and meet with them about a new transmission line that is coming into St. Thomas from London that has to do with the PowerCo plant and Volkswagen.”
Preston continued with his synopsis of meetings held in Toronto.
“We met with Sylvia Jones, the Minister of Health on a couple of issues. How are we solving the family doctor crisis and about our physician recruitment program in Elgin county and how it’s going and how she could be a help to that?
“And also about, on behalf of the CMHA, the progress we’re making on detox and rehab is quite significant and we thanked her for her help and asked for more.
“Our last meeting Tuesday morning was with Hydro One. They asked us to come and meet with them about a new transmission line that is coming into St. Thomas from London that has to do with the PowerCo plant and Volkswagen.
“There’s a public meeting about the route it will take and how long it will take to build it and we wanted to have that conversation sooner rather than later.
“I think they have three different routes they have been looking at. There is a power corridor that comes from London and it may mimic it or be somewhat apart from it.”
Preston advised more announcements will be coming next week.
He agreed that since the EV battery plant announcement in March of last year, the city’s profile at events such as ROMA has been substantially elevated.
“We noticed when we were speaking with some ministers about projects we might have talked about four years ago or projects of the same type, there is a lot more urgency right now because the province has been a great help in getting PowerCo and Volkswagen here and now they know they have to be a big help to answer some of the other things like housing and some of the transportation issues.”
STRATEGIC PLAN SURVEY
The city is undergoing an update on its strategic plan and over the past six months the focus has been on public engagement, including three town hall meetings last fall.
According to the city, once this consultation process is completed and the plan is finalized and approved by city council, it is on to the next stage.
That will encompass:
- Preparing a Strategic Plan web and print-ready booklet and communication materials.
- Developing performance indicators for the strategic priorities and goals, along with progress tracking and reporting processes.
- Developing Year 1 business plans, in alignment with the strategic plan priorities and goals.
- Launching and fully implementing the Strategic Plan.
The draft strategic plan is available for residents to dissect and a survey has been open for some time to further gather feedback.
The city notes, “We will use your feedback to update and strengthen the strategic plan and we will present the final draft of the strategic plan to city council on February 12th for approval.
There is still time to participate in the survey which can be found here.
The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Monday (Jan. 29)
Related post:
As the city readies for rapid expansion, the St. Thomas Strategic Plan is in line for a ‘refresh’
THE ECHO CHAMBER
Mary Lou Stanley posted on our Facebook page her reaction to last week’s items on Old St. Thomas Church and our interview with Michael Loewith regarding Phase 2 of Alma College Square.
“Great history on the Old St Thomas Church! Good job with the interview Michael . . . we love our “Alma Life”!
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
