Background: On 10 October 2023 the RCMP launched a criminal investigation into the Ford Government’s decision to open-up parts of the protected Greenbelt to development. Ontario’s Auditor General said the landowners could get a windfall in excess of $8.3 billion as property values skyrocket. One of the parcels of land – a 2.78sq km tract at Bathurst in rural King Township – was bought by developer Michael Rice on 15 September 2022 for $80M. On 1 November 2022 Rice offered some of his Bathurst lands to Southlake Regional Health Centre as the site of a new acute hospital. This was three days before the Government announced it would allow development in parts of the protected Greenbelt. In September 2023 Ford reversed course and dropped plans to open up the Greenbelt.
Preliminary Concept Plan
Almost two years after the Greenbelt Scandal broke Southlake Regional Health Centre refuses to release details of their “preliminary concept plan” showing the approximate location of the proposed acute hospital at Bathurst and whether the space available could accommodate all the hospital’s requirements - the so-called “fit-test”.
Southlake insists it will not release “site sketches” and “drawings” held in their Capital Projects files even though these would help us understand what really happened.
“Ready to Review Concepts”
On 7 November 2022 Rice wrote to Southlake’s Vice President of Capital and Facilities, John Marshman, telling him:
“We are ready to review concepts.”
And on 16 November 2022 Marshman met Michael Rice and Erin Lindsay (the Rice Group’s Vice President of Administration) at the Rice Group’s HQ in Markham.
We do not know what was said. But we know from his evidence to the Ontario Integrity Commissioner that Rice, a seasoned developer with decades of experience, believed it would be possible to build a hospital on the protected Greenbelt. He also believed the complex could accommodate a Long-Term Care facility and ancillary medical buildings. We do not know if Marshman shared this view or if he checked the position with the Ministry of Health which had examined the hospital’s Master Plan before approving its proposed two site solution. Marshman had known the Rice Group was thinking of offering of land to Southlake as early as January 2022.
Southlake had been working on its Master Plan for a new hospital for years and submitted its proposals for a split site solution to the Ministry of Health on 31 January 2020. The existing Davis Drive site, which was overcrowded and cramped with no room to expand, would focus on ambulatory care and another site, ideally within a 10km radius, would be home to the new acute hospital. The Ministry’s Hospital Capital Planning and Policy Manual published in 2022 sets out the approvals process.
Long-Term Care
We do not know if the Preliminary Concept Plan shows the location of the proposed Long-Term-Care facility.
There was no mention of a Long-Term Care facility being incorporated into the acute hospital complex when Southlake’s plans were unveiled to the public in 2021. And Arden Krystal - Southlake's then Chief Executive - has never mentioned a Long Term Care facility as being a possible add-on to the acute hospital.
Two documents
To this day, there are only two documents in the public domain showing the rough location of the new Southlake. They both show the hospital location straddling land in the protected Greenbelt owned by Rice and John Dunlap, a Southlake Board member until his resignation on 22 September 2022, a week after Rice bought the Bathurst lands for $80M.
Dunlap, a land agent by trade, facilitated the sale from the owners, Schickedanz Brothers, whose principal was Bob Schickedanz, the then President of the Ontario Home Builders Association.
We learn that Dunlap’s declaration of interest:
“related to the future site selection of the new build of a new hospital”.
Two years earlier (in July 2020) Dunlap told King Mayor Steve Pellegrini that he was prepared to donate land to Southlake for a new hospital and that if Pellegrini thought the idea had merit (which he did) he would
“continue to work with Southlake on a donation process”.
Southlake says it has no records of Dunlap ever offering land.
Rice lands shaded yellow
In any event, Rice presented the first schematic to Arden Krystal and John Marshman at the 1 November 2022 meeting. It showed the Rice lands shaded yellow. (See above right)
Both Krystal and Marshman say they took no notes, committing everything to memory. On 5 December 2022, Marshman presented his own schematic to the inaugural meeting of the Southlake Board’s Land Acquisition Sub Committee. But in this version the colour coding had been removed. If the Rice lands had been shaded in yellow in line with the original then Committee members would have asked the obvious question: why are we proposing to build on land that had not been donated to the hospital?
We do not know if this was just a mistake by Marshman but, if so, he has not corrected the record. (Marshman photo right and his slide, below right, which was presented to the Land Acquisition Sub Committee on 5 December 2022. My annotations are in yellow free hand.)
50 acre minimum
The heavily redacted minutes of that meeting tell us there was a discussion on the acreage required for the proposed hospital. Marshman said the 50-acre minimum was in line with Southlake’s Master Plan and the Committee was told this parcel size was
“consistent with Ministry of Heath standard expectations”.
and that
“the test-fit exercise would validate the appropriateness of the parcel size.” 
On 16 January 2023 - Marshman chaired a meeting of architects, planners, facilities experts and senior people to discuss the “Bathurst-Davis Drive Opportunity”. A long-term care facility was now in the mix and would be part of the hospital complex.
No records
Southlake says there are no records of this meeting whose agenda included consideration of the approximate location of the new hospital, the proposed long term care facility and the scope of a possible Ministerial Zoning Order.
On 30 January 2023 Marshman emailed a senior colleague about the preliminary concept plan:
“Please share with the Architects etc asap. Recognising this is not a sufficient parcel to meet our preliminary assessment, it at least provides a general location and preliminary configuration to block from.”
In architecture and planning, these “block plans” show how a proposed development relates to its surrounding environment.
I am left wondering why the parcel was not big enough. Rice had all the land in the world to give to Southlake (2.78 sq km or 686 acres). And on 5 December 2022 Marshman told the LASC the 50 acres was in line with Southlake’s Master Plan.
Southlake says it cannot release its preliminary concept plan as it would reveal information about the role and involvement of (unspecified) third parties. They would have to be consulted and given the opportunity to challenge release of the material.
Fading memories
These interminable delays have important consequences. Since the scandal first broke almost two years ago, memories have faded. Key people at the very top of the organisation have left Southlake. Their email accounts have been deleted.
We know from his interview with the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, that Rice would never have offered land to Southlake if he had known in the summer of 2022 that the Bathurst lands would be taken out of the Greenbelt. He said he would have developed the land for housing. Indeed, the material he handed over to Ryan Amato – the Chief of Staff to the former Housing Minister Steve Clark - at the end of September 2022 makes no mention of a hospital on the Bathurst lands.
Rice says it was only because he had given an earlier commitment to the Southlake people that he would make land available that he stuck with his “promise”.
The preliminary concept plan of 30 January 2023 is likely to tell us what else the development might include other than the acute hospital. And, importantly, it would give us the “general location”.
For these and other reasons the plan should be made public.
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