By Richard Bell
At a meeting at the Rink on May 13, MLA Kent Smith announced that NSCC had notified him that they were no longer interested in becoming a tenant at the old Eastern District Shore High building. Also present at the meeting were HRM Councillor David Hendsbee, and Brendan Maguire, Minister of Advanced Education and Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
The announcement was a blow to Smith, and to the community. Smith said NSCC had shown “great interest” after discussions and two site visits. Smith said he did not know why NSCC had decided to walk away.
Ever since the Liberals announced their highly controversial plan to close Eastern Shore District High, there has been great community concern about the fate of the building. Smith has worked hard to find potential tenants. And at an earlier meeting on the building’s future of more than 80 people at the Old School, there was strong support for using the school for educational purposes.
Both Smith and Maguire agreed that allowing the school to fall into the hands of HRM was a recipe for a slow-motion disaster. When the province closes a school, Education turns the school over to Public Works, and in most cases in HRM, Public Works then turns that school over to HRM. When Moser River closed, HRM let the building rot away for 10 years before tearing it down. The school in Tangier has been sitting empty since 2019.
Smith is strongly opposed to the school falling into the hands of HRM. “So I've said this publicly before, it would not be desirable in my view for HRM to have the entity that owns Eastern Shore District High School. And I say that only based on their history and their track record in our constituency for dealing with decommissioned schools. And again, I've said that to David, I've said that to other HRM counselors, it's not a secret, I don't mean to be insulting, but just based on results, they haven't done a great job.”
During the course of the Rink meeting, Smith, Maguire, and Hendsbee reviewed options for saving the building, along with numerous suggestions from the 30 people in attendance, from daycare centres to new sports facilities.
All three officials agreed that the most important problem in reusing the building was deciding who was going to take on the demanding task of managing the property. Maguire said that any solution was likely to require the creation of a community-based organization. “So first thing I would say to everyone in this group is if you truly want to keep the building and save the building, I would get an association up and running,” Maguire said. “That's good advice.”
Hendsbee told the crowd that he had been pushing for moving the library and the recreation centre from the municipal building to the school and moving the Eastern Shore Family Resource Centre from Porters Lake to the municipal building.
In response to a question from Margo Hudson, Maguire promised to make public long-withheld information about the building’s condition. Hudson expressed frustration at Education’s refusal for three years to release these documents.
Maguire was unequivocal. “I'll get the information,” Maguire said. “And I will make sure we get you the information so that we can make a more informed decision. Before anyone makes a decision in this room, before you set up, I will get you the information so as a community, you can look at it.”
[Audio recordings of the Rink meeting will be available on the Cooperator’s website, https://www.easternshorecooperator.ca]
