Province looking at other locations for new Sherwood school after Charlottetown council decision

The province may have to find another location for a new Sherwood school after Charlottetown council deferred a decision to sell the land that was planned for the project earlier this week. 

Parents have been pushing for a new Sherwood school for years. In 2017, the province presented a plan that the school would be built at the same location as Sherwood Elementary.

The province planned to buy some land behind Cody Banks Arena to build the new school, which would allow the existing school to remain open during construction.

But at the council meeting Monday night, council voted to defer the decision of selling the 0.36 hectares of land at a price of $158,000. Councillors expressed concern about the possibility of wanting that land to expand the rink in the future.

The city is currently trying to decide what to do with its arenas, and some councillors wanted more information on that plan before making a decision. 

"Well we're still going to keep moving ahead with the project," said Infrastructure Minister Steven Myers. 

"I've instructed our staff upstairs to go look for other properties and reach out to the owners of them and see if they're available to buy, what the price is."

Myers said that work has just begun, but he is confident they will be able to find other land that will work, though he said the land at Cody Banks Arena is the province's first choice.

Right of first refusal

Part of the original motion dealing with the land sale, which was deferred, gave the province the right of first refusal on purchasing Cody Banks Arena, if the city were to sell it in the future.

Some councillors were concerned with that as well. Myers said if the city approved the sale of the land behind Cody Banks Arena, the province would have to consider alternatives if it wasn't also given the right of first refusal for the arena itself as well.

Myers said that part of the deal was important to the province because they may want that land for an expansion of the school in the future.

"You know if bits and pieces of it are going to be on the table, some are going to be off the table, there's lots of other options that we can look at and probably should, in the best interests of the taxpayers of Prince Edward Island," he said.

"We're going to motor ahead and do our thing. Not to get in the way of what the city is doing, the decision is absolutely theirs and I respect that. And if they have future plans and they want to build a rink there instead of a school then by all means go ahead and we'll look at buying another place."

There was no date given for when the decision would be back at council. 

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