A medical innovation park in Oro-Medonte has been put on a death watch after township council recommended the provincial government kill the minister’s zoning order (MZO) that would have brought it to life.
At the township’s regular council meeting Wednesday, municipal staff were looking to council for authorization to submit comments about an MZO related to the development of a medical innovation park on Line 7 North in response to a request from Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra.
The minister is looking to potentially revoke, amend or enhance monitoring for specific MZOs where limited progress has been made.
Rather than simply provide comments, Oro-Medonte council amended the motion to reflect its desire to have the MZO revoked.
“Council direct planning staff to make a submission to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing based on the comments as outlined in Report DS2024-004 through the Environmental Registry of Ontario (019-7996) as the township’s submission on the ministry’s Consultation on Potential Revocation of Minister’s Zoning Order Ontario Regulation 609/20 to support the revocation of the MZO as it applies to the subject property,” the clerk read into the record.
Council supported the motion unanimously.
MZO Ontario Regulation 609/20, which was issued on Oct. 30, 2020 for a proposed medical innovation park at 561 Line 7 N., about halfway between Barrie and Orillia on Highway 11, is the only MZO in Oro-Medonte the minister is reviewing. There are two other MZOs in the township, but they are considered active applications.
“No applications have been received by the township to facilitate the proposed development and, further, the township has received no correspondence from the owner of the lands about the progress of this development,” Andy Karaiskakis, the township's manager of planning services, wrote in his report to council.
“Consequently, planning staff are of the opinion that O. Reg. 609/20 as it relates to the medical innovation park located at 561 Line 7 N. is not progressing in an expedient manner as intended through the approval of the site specific MZO," Karaiskakis added.
At the height of the COVID epidemic, Canadians found themselves at the back of the line when it came to finding and securing personal protective equipment (PPE). Everything from masks and gloves to face shields and eye protection was in short supply.
Governments at every level tried to find solutions.
The feds brought in PPE from China, the United States and Europe.
Ontario’s government courted a wide variety of manufacturers, trying to convince them to re-tool their factories so they could produce the much-needed PPE.
David Yeaman, president of Oro-Medonte-based Molded Precision Components (MPC), and Geoff Campbell, managing partner of Oakleigh Developments, appeared before Oro-Medonte Township council on July 15, 2020, seeking a letter of support for their application for an MZO to change the zoning of the Line 7 property from rural/agricultural and environmentally protected to economic development with site-specific special provisions.
“As we currently navigate the COVID-19 crisis, it has become apparent that Ontario and Canada must bolster its manufacturing capabilities within our borders to ensure sufficient capacity to support our health-care industry,” they said in their presentation for the Oro-Medonte Medical Innovation Park.
They said the park would provide the “opportunity for Ontario to strengthen its medical supply infrastructure to ensure sovereign self sufficiency and mitigate risk from foreign protectionist policies.”
Harry Hughes, who was Oro-Medonte’s mayor at the time, remembers the presentation and how impressed he was with it.
“They did an amazing job,” he said. “It was at the height of COVID and it’s what was needed.”
The township supported the request for the MZO, which was granted Oct. 30, 2020.
Sometime after receiving the MZO, Yeaman put the land up for sale. The asking price was more than $26 million.
In February 2022, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing issued a statement about the proposal.
“Since the landowner has decided to not build the medical innovation park and has instead put the land up for sale, the minister will initiate conversations with the Township of Oro-Medonte to commence the process of revoking the MZO,” said Zoe Knowles, communications director for Steve Clark, then-minister of municipal affairs and housing.
“We have been clear that MZOs are a tool to accelerate critical local projects, like housing and health care, by cutting through red tape — and it is not a tool to be leveraged for real-estate speculation," Knowles added.
At the time, Yeaman called the minister’s decision “disturbing.”
“We have every intention of trying to move this forward,” he told BarrieToday in February 2022.
BarrieToday contacted both Yeaman and Campbell for comment. Neither returned calls or emails.
