The building is an impressive site in west-end Belleville as construction continues on the new YMCA Centre for Life.
And on Monday, Belleville council will finally vote on a motion to transfer the property from the city to the YMCA of Central-East Ontario.
Construction began on the site in the former Centennial Park on Bridge Street West in the fall of last year after the city issued a building permit.
The centre was originally to be constructed on the former fairgrounds property but it was found to contain soil-based contamination.
The move to allow construction to begin quickly on the new property was made because the YMCA needed to get “shovels in the ground” or risk losing millions of dollars in senior government funding.
Meanwhile, after a citizen’s (Alex Wideman) complaint, the city’s process on the property transfer was the subject of a very recent closed meeting investigator’s report which found council breached the Municipal Act by voting on the transfer of the property to the “Y” in a closed meeting in July of 2025.
The investigator said any vote on a transfer or sale of land or any other substantive decision must be done in an open meeting.Council can only vote in closed meetings on procedural matters or deciding on directions to be given to staff.
A month later, in August of 2025, council publicly announced the land swap with the YMCA Centre for Life.
Previously, a by-law was prepared by staff but never discussed or voted on.
It said the swap involved the city buying the current Victoria Avenue YMCA property for $2,725,000 and then selling its Centennial Park for an equal amount.
Meanwhile, the investigator, David Boghosian, also found the general nature of the topic, the YMCA matter, had not been described as it should have been on the public agenda at the June 23, 2025 meeting of council.
In his recommendation to council Boghosian says when council plans to go into a closed meeting to give staff direction it should explicitly verify in public session that it will not take substantive, or binding, vote at that time.
See the entire closed meeting investigator’s report here.
