Charlottetown councillors squabble over control of old Prince Edward Home land

Charlottetown parks and recreation chair Coun. Mitchell Tweel and intergovernmental affairs vice chair Coun. Terry Bernard both want to be in the room for discussions on the old Prince Edward Home land.

Built as a hospital in 1933, converted to a nursing home, and now being torn down, there has been pressure to convert the land the building sat on to green space. It is adjacent to Victoria Park.

Tweel he would like to see his committee work collaboratively with the province, saying the city will most likely be the caretaker of the site.

"I think we need to be in on the ground floor when it comes to planning, when it comes to the vision of that property," he said.

"Doing extensive collaboration and consultation — that is the responsibility of parks and recreation." 

'It's not our role to be there yet'

Bernard said it's the responsibility of the intergovernmental affairs committee to work with the province.

"For the city to say, 'We want to be involved and we want to start seeing what we want,' well, it's not our role to be there yet," he said.

"That's what [the] intergovernmental committee is for — is to negotiate and work things out with different levels of government."

The province owns the property and said as of January, the plan is to return the site to green space.

Bernard said that's what the city would like to see as well. 

He said at the last meeting the city had with the province, there was mention of some community groups interested in financially contributing to the proposed green space. 

When asked if instead of green space, the old Prince Edward Home site would better be suited for housing, Bernard said that's the province's decision.

Bernard said if the province was to hold a public meeting on the matter, the city would support them.

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