The provincial government has announced plans to move three Burnaby programs from the Willingdon site on Canada Way to the Riverview lands in Coquitlam, but there’s still no word on what will happen to the plot of land when the province’s lease expires in 2017.
The province sold the 16-hectare plot for $57.9 million to two First Nations – the Tsleil Waututh and the Musqueam, who partnered with the Aquilini Group to redevelop the site.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation did not respond to the NOW’s media request, and the Aquilini Investment Group is not commenting, pending negotiations with the city.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said the parties haven’t made any formal proposal yet.
“They may be working with the planning department, but nothing has been raised to the level of my consideration or council’s consideration,” he said.
The site is currently zoned for business, industrial or education use, Corrigan added.
Burnaby was hoping to buy the land from the province and hold onto it, possibly for a new hospital, but the government sold it to the two First Nations instead. Now they are left with business, high tech uses that would dovetail with the business development in Discovery Place, Corrigan added.
The Willingdon land complex includes the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre (a treatment centre for troubled youth) and the Provincial Assessment Centre, which helps teens with behaviour issues and adults with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses.
The province is leasing the Willingdon site until 2017 and will move the programs to Riverview, the site of B.C.’s old psychiatric hospital. The province is spending roughly $176.5 million on two new buildings to accommodate the programs now run in Burnaby.
