August 24, 2021

Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy makes cash offer to acquire Talisman lands from Grey Highlands

The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy (EBC), a leading Canadian land trust, announced that on August 20, 2021 it submitted a formal written offer to the Municipality of Grey Highlands to acquire the Talisman lands owned by Grey Highlands in the Beaver Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This offer is further to the letter of intent submitted to Grey Highlands by EBC on June 11, 2021.

If accepted by Grey Highlands, EBC intends to preserve these provincially and nationally important lands in perpetuity as a nature reserve and for community recreational use, including permanently preserving the Bruce Trail running through the lands.

Grey Highlands acquired these lands, which are adjacent to the former Talisman hotel, from various developers who have attempted to reopen the Talisman ski resort hotel facilities and undertake large scale developments over the last decade

Grey Highlands owns two environmentally important parcels of Talisman area land:

• The 59.5 acres of upper lands through which the Bruce Trail runs, and which are a part of the Woodhouse Karst system, one of the most interesting examples of karst topography in Canada, and one of the sources of water for the Amik and Kimberley communities
• The 74.5 acres of the former Talisman golf course, including a lengthy portion of the Beaver River. This area is largely environmentally protected and part of the Beaver Valley flood plain.

The EBC offer is for an all-cash purchase at the appraised values of these two parcels based on an independent appraiser’s initial understanding of the development potential for these lands. EBC will investigate whether in fact there is any realistic possibility of developing these lands in the near term given their environmental importance and the lengthy regulatory approval process that would be required. Based on this investigation, the purchase price may be adjusted to reflect the actual estimated value of these lands to a commercial developer. The offer is conditional on EBC having a period of time to raise the funds to pay for these lands, which it is confident can be done.

“While Grey Highlands has been negotiating with a development group to build multiple residential and other units on the site, we expect that the Municipality will see that our offer is consistent with the strong views expressed by hundreds of community members in the recent Beaver Valley Visioning sessions, as well as its own official plan and Climate Change policies.” said Bob Barnett, EBC Executive Director. “Large scale residential and commercial development is not an appropriate use for these lands, which should be preserved in their natural state and managed to provide ecosystem services, available for use by the wider community.”

Mr. Barnett continued, “Grey Highlands has not released the terms of its conditional agreement with this development group, but we assume that it has protected its right to consider our competing offer. Our offer is a demonstrably better use of public lands for the community than large scale development in an environmentally important UNESCO Heritage Site. Several past attempts to develop these lands have failed to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, for good reason. We do not believe that the NEC, the Province and other relevant government bodies would permit the destruction of these public lands and their privatization.”

In a response to whether the municipality could consider the new offer from EBC, Grey Highlands Mayor Paul McQueen said, "The Municipality of Grey Highlands is currently under the terms of a conditional purchase and sale with Westway Capital. Council is aware that EBC has submitted an offer for consideration." He went on to explain that consideration could not be given unless the conditional offer from Westway could not be concluded. "The Westway/Municipality agreement is currently going through the review process and for whatever reason should this sale not be finalized, the Municipality we be in a position to review the offer from the EBC or any other offer that may come forward." There is no indication as to the deadline for conditions on the Westway offer to be met.

 

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