Category Archives: Elgin county

05.16.26
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The City of St. Thomas is seeking ‘visionary and innovative proposals’ for the former Wellington Street School

September 17, 2012, proved an exciting day in the life of St. Thomas, as students returned to Wellington Street School for the first time in several years.

The former Thames Valley District School Board facility, purchased by the city in 2011 to provide parking spaces for the new consolidated courthouse, was being revitalized as the St. Thomas campus of Algoma University.

“This is a great day for Algoma University, and it’s also a great day for St. Thomas and Elgin County,” enthused Algoma president Richard Myers.

“You’ve made my St. Thomas a richer place today, and it’s a richer place for all of us,” added Andrew Gunn, trustee for the estate of Dorothy Palmer, which contributed more than $1 million to the refurbishment of the heritage school.

Fast forward 20 months, and the headline of that day was being put to the test.

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05.02.26
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These investments in education ‘reflect the remarkable growth we are experiencing in St.Thomas’ – Mayor Joe Preston

It was a red-letter day for education in St. Thomas and Southwold Township this past Tuesday.
The province announced a $1.8 billion investment to build and expand schools across the province, with more than $80 million in funding earmarked for three new area schools.
Of that total, almost $44 million will be spent on a new high school with a capacity of 703 students to replace Arthur Voaden Secondary School.
A new 412-place elementary school with 49 licensed child care spaces valued at $22 million will be built in Talbotville.
And, in a joint venture between the Thames Valley District School Board and Ecole scolaire Viamonde, a new French elementary school, with room for 262 students, will share the same site at a cost of almost $16 million.
The local funding is part of a $92 million investment announced Tuesday morning for new and expanded schools in Thames Valley.
No details were announced on the exact locations of the three new facilities.

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04.25.26
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St. Thomas relaunches program designed to assist low-to moderate-income households purchase their first home

After a hiatus of nearly six years, the City of St. Thomas is reviving the St. Thomas-Elgin Affordable Homeownership Program (AHP), originally launched in 2007.

The AHP was designed to assist low-to moderate-income households in purchasing their first home.

This AHP was originally funded as a one-time allocation under the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program.

It is worth noting that since its inception, 46 households have successfully achieved homeownership through the initiative.

So, how does the program operate?

In her report to council at the April 20 meeting, Ellen Hickey, Supervisor of Housing Stability Services, explained, “AHP provides down payment assistance in the form of an interest-free, forgivable loan over a 20-year period to help eligible St Thomas-Elgin households transition from renting to home ownership.

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04.18.26
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Hydro One to begin powering growth in the city this spring with construction of the St. Thomas Line

Work on the PowerCo EV battery plant began in earnest last summer with the pouring of concrete for the first pad of the gigafactory, and structural steel can now be seen reaching skyward.

But it doesn’t really give you a sense of just how massive this facility will become in the next couple of years.

Well, this eye-watering statistic may help clarify the picture.

The EV battery plant will require 380 megawatts of power when in production. That’s equivalent to the energy needed for a city the size of Windsor, according to Hydro One.

And that has necessitated construction of the St. Thomas Line, a 230-kilovolt, double-circuit transmission line that will extend from their existing transmission corridor north of Hwy. 401 in London to the new Centennial Transformer Station in St. Thomas.

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04.11.26
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The City of St. Thomas partnership with Indwell is leading the charge for a new vision of hope and homes for the homeless in the community

A new supportive housing project for St. Thomas was announced last March, a continuation of the successful partnership between the city and Indwell.

The organization is a Christian charity dedicated to providing affordable housing and community support

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday morning on the site of the former Balaclava Street Public School.

Indwell had announced that they will be transforming the four-storey structure into 78 units of supportive housing, equipped with essential supports to assist residents, and to be known as Balaclava Crossing.

This will include 36 units within the existing school structure and an additional 42 units in a new extension.

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04.04.26
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The updated model of care at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital results in the loss of 26 PSWs

St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital is updating its model of care, which will result in the elimination of 26 full-time Personal Support Worker positions.

The announcement came on the same day that London Health Sciences Centre indicated more than 200 nursing positions will be eliminated through voluntary resignations or retirements over the next three to five years.

According to a hospital spokesperson, there will be no media release outlining the rationale behind the model of care changes or additional details on what these changes might look like.

The method of care update at STEGH is designed to better meet the needs of patients whose medical conditions have become increasingly complex.

The spokesperson advised in a text message that more patients now require frequent nursing assessments, complex medication management, and timely clinical interventions

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03.21.26
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The road ahead for Railway City Transit: Ensuring you will be able to promptly get there from here

Less than 18 months after a consultant’s report called for an aggressive shift to sustainable travel modes in St. Thomas, the city is undertaking a ‘Railway City Transit Plan for Growth.’

Before delving into the latest exercise in putting the city’s transit system under the microscope, let’s recap some of the findings of the Transportation Master Plan refresh project compiled by Paradigm Transportation Solutions.

Kevin Jones of Paradigm recommended an aggressive shift in the operation of Railway City Transit that would see a six-fold increase in annual service hours involving 26 buses in service operating 17 hours every weekday.

These figures are based on a city population of 79,500, a couple of decades distant.

Jones went on to note, there is a “need to fund transit that provides an affordable alternative, enables access to all areas of the city and gives residents choice in how they travel.”

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02.28.26
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‘The former St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital site presents an exciting opportunity to put unused government land back to work, unlocking new homes, parks and local businesses’

In the coming years, in the shadow of St. Thomas, a small town will sprout and grow; its progression unfolding like time-lapse photography.

And its evolution will begin to germinate next week as the Municipality of Central Elgin begins the hunt for “experienced development partners” to play a leading role in turning about 400 acres of land into the largest planned community expansion in the municipality’s history.

The former St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital lands in the coming decades will be redeveloped into a community of more than 3,500 new homes, with 9,000 residents, local businesses and parkland.

The hospital opened in 1939, and St. Joseph’s Health Care in London assumed control in 1997 as part of the reorganization initiative ordered by the Health Care Restructuring Commission.

It closed once the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care opened in 2013.

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02.14.26
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From the Mayor of St. Thomas to Mayor Bubba presiding over the grandkids, Joe Preston is set to ‘take a step back’

While the media release on Tuesday evening may have caught some residents by surprise, if you have been a close observer over the past few months, it was evident that St. Thomas would have a new mayor come November.
The tip-offs were as subtle as the first signs of spring; however, as Mayor Joe Preston phrased it, “It was time to take a step back.”
As he stressed in the media release, the decision not to seek re-election in the 2026 municipal vote comes after “thoughtful personal and professional consideration.“
“All things have to be decided personally and professionally,” he added. “At some point, you have to ask yourself when it’s the right time to take a step back.”

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