MANITOULIN—Both the former Little Current and Manitowaning Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) building locations have received interest for purchase by both government agencies and the public sector at market value.
Alanna Myles, advisor, communications with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) told The Expositor last week, “you will notice on the IO sales portal that the referenced properties are listed as ‘in negotiations for direct sale.’ This means that as a result of the circulation process, we have received an expression of interest for the properties from a government or broader public sector entity interested in acquiring at market value. Therefore, the properties are not currently available for public sale, nor have they been to date.”
“If the negotiations (to purchase the buildings) are successful, the status on our website will change to sold,” said Ms. Myles. “If these negotiations do not result in a direct sale, (each) property would be listed for public sale through a real estate broker in a fair, open and competitive manner and the property would appear as ‘listed on the open market’ on our website.”
As was reported in The Expositor on February 17, 2021 in part, “IO, which manages buildings owned by the provincial government, has begun the process of disposing of the former Little Current detachment office and is evaluating what to do with the former Manitowaning (OPP) detachment building.”
“IO continually reviews the portfolio it manages, which includes selling properties that are surplus to government needs in order to generate revenue for taxpayers,” Ms. Myles pointed out. The former Little Current detachment is located in an old house at 12 Campbell Street East.
IO estimated operations and maintenance costs for 2020-2021 at the Little Current building at roughly $41,000, a figure it said is lower than the OPP costs when it occupied the building.
Ontario engaged in an OPP modernization project, a $182 million project to replace old police facilities with nine new detachments. The Manitoulin detachment was part of the campaign and received its new detachment in Little Current, which resulted in the closure of the old detachments in Little Current, Manitowaning and Mindemoya that were then obsolete.
The old Mindemoya detachment office is now the headquarters of the Island’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry personnel.
