The proposed sale of the Grant Alternative School site in Nepean has many asking why they weren’t told of the plan to sell property that could have great value as a community asset.
The school closed in 2017. The school building and the 2.2-hectares on which it is located, is under the domain of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), were recently listed for sale through the commercial real estate firm Avison Young.
Tom Ledgley, coordinator for the municipal advocacy group Horizon Ottawa, says that the private listing of a previously public asset is the latest example of the provincial government’s broader mission to pull power out of the hands of municipalities.
“It just sets a really bad precedent when we’re talking about a local property that’s publicly owned in the community,” Ledgley said. “There are plenty of different public projects that could be done with this kind of a building and it’s a little bit concerning to have the Ford government coming in and acting in this way that doesn’t allow the public to have a say.”
In June 2025, the province placed the OCSDB under the supervision of Bob Plamondon, claiming the school board had been mismanaged by the trustees. Plamondon’s appointment gave him full control over the board and led to trustees being locked out of their email accounts.
In the same month, the Ford government passed new legislation that allows school boards, such as the OCDSB, to speedily divest unused facilities under certain conditions and upon review from Education Minister Paul Calandra. The board’s “accumulated deficit,” among other stipulations, is one of the key determinants of sale worthiness.
The board told the CBC that any proceeds from sales must go into capital reserves.
In November, the OCDSB announced a deficit for the 2024-25 school year of $5.3 million, marking the board’s fifth straight year in the red.
Ottawa-West Nepean MPP Chandra Pasma, who opposes the sale, says she is mostly concerned with the way the sale is being done.
“I don’t have a problem with the OCDSB selling off unused school properties,” said Pasma. “The question is, how it’s being done, how the community is informed and whether or not we are given the opportunity to use these lands, which are public lands, bought and maintained by taxpayers, for public benefit before it just gets quietly handed over to private interests.”
“Once it’s in private hands … we will not get it back,” she added.
The OCDSB’s lack of transparency regarding the sale is also a sticking point for College Coun. Laine Johnson, who says she only found out about the sale thanks to an alert from a concerned citizen. Johnson argues the city cannot be realistically expected to compete on the open market with private developers, who are able to operate with far more agility.
“If the city wants to acquire a piece of land, they need to identify what program they’re going to use it for and they need to identify the funding source for it,” said Johnson. “You can’t just grab a piece of land, because you know that in the future sometime, you’re going to need it.”
The ability of the school board to move to the private market without providing formal notice to city council or the community may create an environment in which public institutions have a harder time acquiring public land for public interest.
“That’s my alarm,” Johnson said. “The way that this disposal policy now works in Ontario means that cities just won’t be fast enough.”
An Avison Young representative told Capital Current the firm’s confidentiality agreement prohibits it from commenting on plans for sale of the school building and lot.
It is part of a concerted effort to generally just erode the public school system, and one of the steps they are taking in that is getting rid of barriers that make it harder to cut programs and make the experience of school worse.
Tom Ledgley, Horizon Ottawa
Ledgley points to Bill 33, which enabled the provincial government to take over municipal school boards and neutralize the decision-making power of trustees, as the first phase of a larger provincial plan.
“It is part of a concerted effort to generally just erode the public school system, and one of the steps they are taking in that is getting rid of barriers that make it harder to cut programs and make the experience of school worse,” said Ledgley.
“It’s harder to do that if you have a locally elected board that is opposing decisions like that.”
“I do think that the ultimate goal is to eliminate … school boards,” he added.
The province has so far assumed control of eight school boards across Ontario. A recent report suggests no cost-cutting measures have so far been proposed at any of the boards.
Education Minister Paul Calandra’s office did not respond to Capital Current’s request for comment.
Johnson and Pasma agree that in the case of Grant Alternative, there’s little that can realistically be done to engage Avison Young at this point in the sale. As a result, the focus shifts towards larger policy conversations and potential guardrails the city can put into place to have more influence on future sales of public land.
“There’s lots of ways we can think about doing this with a private partner,” said Johnson, who says that it might be possible to have sale conditions that require private collaboration with a public institution, for example.
“I would hope that the provincial government understands that education is a public good, and we shouldn’t necessarily expect profit or a revenue.”
As far as larger trends toward blurred lines between public and private sectors go, Johnson says that vigilance from public officials and community members is more important now than ever.
“As you start eroding the public sector, the private sector can be benevolent for as long as they like, and then they can change the rules,” said Johnson. “Once we let things go, getting them back is really hard, so it is worth the fight to protect them.”
