🆕 In The News: Councillor Jackson credited for brokering complex land swap for Broughton East Park and French High School

The Bay Observer gives credit to the grass-roots Broughton East Park Citizens' Committee organized by Councillor Jackson back in 2014 which collected 400 signatures on a petition to preserve Broughton Eat Park as a green space (instead of it becoming the footprint for a high school). Over the past 12 years, Councillor Jackson has been working tirelessly on this nuanced file with the final result being that Broughton East Park is now City-owned while finding a suitable footprint in Ancaster for a Francophone High School.

To view the article in the Bay Observer, click here.

History:

At the inception of the Broughton East neighbourhood in the late 1980s, a 9.5-acre parcel of land southwest of Grayrocks Avenue and east of Ashridge Place was designated as a future Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) site. From then to 2014, when it was apparent the land would not be used for its intended purpose – and before HWDSB declared it as surplus – community volunteers, the Ward 6 Office, and the City of Hamilton collaborated to fundraise for park amenities.

Although transitioning to a park was unofficial, it was done in good faith between the City and HWDSB. In 2014, the City was unable to buy the land from HWDSB since the Ontario Education Act gave purchasing priority to the Conseil Scolaire Catholique MonAvenir of the French Catholic School Board (FCSB). Undeterred, the political action and hard work of the community – including a petition with over 400 names – resulted in negotiations between the City and the FCSB with the aim of finding an alternate FCBS site to preserve Broughton East Park (BEP).

In the fall of 2023, the City entered a tri-party agreement with the FCSB and a land developer in Ancaster that would see a land swap for a future FCSB school in Ancaster, leaving BEP to be City-owned.

This has been an 12-year journey for which Councillor Jackson's office has fought to protect open space area and park amenities from becoming a 3-storey school with a massive parking lot and a regular presence of school busses. Councillor Jackson's office, in conjunction with the volunteer BEP Citizens Committee (co-chaired by Josie Cosco and Dianne Brunetti) fought to preserve the green space for generations to come.

Last term, Councillor Jackson convinced Council to purchase the alternate 14-acre site at 700 Garner Road in Ancaster. On June 4, 2024, then-former Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, approved the land swap between the City and the FCSB. Shortly thereafre however, the City was caught in the middle of a legal matter between the Ancaster developer and the FCSB involving the Garner Road site. This led to Councillor Jackson hosting a meeting at City Hall with all parties to resolve outstanding matters. Most recently, Councillor Jackson's advocacy culminated with a signing ceremony at CIty Hall on Wednesay, February 25, 2026 that resulted in BEP being owned by City of Hamilton taxpayers. Between Councillor Jackson's Ward 6 financial reserves and the City’s Parks Department, $500,000 has been earmarked for BEP revitalization including the replacement of the nearly 30-year-old amenities with modern equipment.