HEATHER BOA Bullet News Huron GODERICH – A task force of politicians and economic development specialists will soon be established by Huron County Council to find an alternative use for the recently closed Bluewater Youth Centre that will bring new jobs to the area.
“Let’s see if we can turn this into an opportunity,” said Deb Shewfelt, who is the mayor of Goderich, in introducing the idea. The warden, a couple of mayors and county economic development staff will probably sit on the task force.
“I agree it’s a shock even though it’s been talked about for well over a year,” he said at County council today.
His comments came after Jim Ginn, who is the mayor of Central Huron, asked council members to support a strongly worded letter to Eric Hoskins, who is the Minister of Children and Youth Services, which operated the secure youth facility.
Municipal councillors and administrators spent four days recently at a municipal conference where provincial ministry representatives delivered the message that they want to work in partnership with municipal governments.
Monday, the ministry announced it was closing the doors at BYC. The next day, it sent home with pay until further notice 130 full-time and 51 fixed term union employees, and 17 management staff. It said it will honour the terms of the collective agreement for layoff notices.
“I really feel stabbed in the back over this. I don’t understand why the province, if they really want us to be partners, wouldn’t have discussed this with us at some point in time,” he said.
“Obviously, to be able to move those residents out of there in one day after the official announcement, they’ve been planning this for some time,” he said.
Ginn brought along to the meeting 12-year-old Ty Mellor, of Central Huron, who was a page for the meeting.
“Partners are supposed to work together,” he said.
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson is beginning to hear from concerned employees and expects at least one petition in the near future. She has questioned the minister and promised to raise her concerns in the Ontario Legislature, which sits until the end of this week.
“My role will be to hold the government accountable for their decision-making and to see if we can facilitate alternative use and see if we can attract some type of opportunity to bring jobs or keep jobs in rural Ontario,” she said.
“We’re losing a lot of jobs. I’m not seeing any vision or business plan that is dedicated to rural economic development,” she said.
She told the minister the perception is that correctional services jobs are inching closer to the Greater Toronto Area. She said he denied that’s the case.
She also clarified to him that the facility e is located in the Municipality of Central Huron. Earlier this week, the ministry office notified the Town of Goderich of the impending closure but failed to notify the Municipality of Central Huron.
