The province plans to sell its big building at 1 Stone Road W., but the head office of the government ministry located in Guelph will remain here, says local MPP Liz Sandals.
The Liberal government “is committed to keeping the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs head office right here in Guelph while eliminating the deficit,” Sandals said in a news release Friday.
The 364,000-sq-.ft- building on Stone Road, built in 1996, is one of eight provincial government buildings in eight cities that the government plans to sell and lease back, the release said. This is in keeping with the recent recommendations of a commission led by economic Don Drummond, it said.
“Ontarians look to their government to provide services, not to be a landlord,” the release said. “The private sector can manage office space much better and at a lower cost.”
Through its agency Infrastructure Ontario, the province intends to sell and lease back the properties during 2013-14 “in an open, fair and competitive process that ensures maximum value for taxpayers’ dollars,” it said.
Aside from the building in Guelph, the government plans to sell buildings in North Bay, Oshawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Toronto.
As well as selling 222 Jarvis St. in Toronto, the province intends to relocate public servants in Toronto “from multiple buildings across the city where the government is paying high lease rates and the office space per person is larger than the private sector average,” the release said.
The announcement came a few days before the government, facing massive deficit woes, tables its 2012-13 budget on March 27.