There is something I was told months ago that I haven’t been able to shake. An insider told us they believed the City wasn’t telling the public everything about what was happening around 791 Arundel Street.
At the time, there was no way to know exactly what that meant. We already knew enough to be suspicious. City Council had deliberately put parkland on the table for surplus and sale. We knew 791 Arundel had somehow graduated from public greenspace to an “Opportunity Site.” We knew developers had been courted before most residents had any idea their park was being contemplated for development. And we knew an extraordinary amount of consequential business was happening where Thunder Bay residents couldn’t see it: behind closed doors.
But now I find myself returning to that warning. Because the more we learn about what City Hall already knew -and what it was already pursuing, while residents were fighting to save the Arundel parkland, the more I wonder what else we weren’t being told.
791 Arundel is starting to look considerably less like an isolated housing development and considerably more like one piece of a larger vision for the Boulevard Lake area. And here’s something I didn’t fully appreciate while Council was telling us how badly Thunder Bay needed housing and why Arundel therefore needed to become part of the solution: the former Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital property wasn’t sitting nearby waiting for somebody to notice its development potential. The LPH file was already very much alive.
The property is approximately 144 acres. By January 2024, City representatives were talking to the province about its redevelopment and publicly acknowledging developer interest. By January 2025, transferring LPH to the City for development was a formal advocacy priority, and Mayor Ken Boshcoff was saying “numerous groups and organizations” had already come forward with fairly advanced site plans and proposals. Then, on July 7, 2026 -five weeks before the Arundel vote, Council unanimously made “LPH land transfer to City for development, in collaboration with First Nations” its number-one advocacy priority.
So, while Current River residents were being told about Thunder Bay’s need for housing as justification for putting an established urban forest into play, Council was actively pursuing another 144 acres for development, where multiple parties had apparently already arrived with plans. That seems like useful context.
Numerous groups and organizations. How exciting. Who are they? Apparently, Thunder Bay doesn’t need to know.
So, I’m going to do something City Hall’s approach to transparency has practically begged residents to do throughout the Arundel fiasco. I’m going to speculate. I wonder if Terralux is one of them. I wonder if there is a larger development vision involving LPH, 791 Arundel, 755 Arundel, and the broader Boulevard Lake greenspace complex.
A few days after Council approved the Arundel rezoning, a trusted neighbourhood resident spotted the husband of Julie Tsekouras taking a stroll around Boulevard Lake. Julie Tsekouras is a director and officer of Terralux -the company selected by the City to purchase and develop 791 Arundel, along with 144 Fanshaw Street and 300 Tokio Street.
Perhaps Julie’s husband was simply enjoying the scenery. Perhaps he was admiring the urban forest. Perhaps he had heard Mayor Boshcoff’s stirring remarks about how much people enjoy living near trails and decided to experience them before anybody got carried away with an excavator.
How lovely.
Whatever brought Julie’s husband there, the timing caught a neighbour’s attention -and now it has mine. The lake. The forest. 791 Arundel. 755 Arundel. And those 144 acres at LPH.
All. That. Land.
I have absolutely no idea what Julie’s husband was thinking as he walked around Boulevard Lake. But I know what I’m thinking. How big is the plan?
That’s speculation, and I make no apology for it. If Council would prefer residents didn’t speculate about what it’s doing with public land, it has had every opportunity to conduct this business in a way that inspires confidence. Instead, we get closed sessions, confidential memoranda, unreleased scoring, private negotiations, and elected representatives who routinely know considerably more than the people whose neighbourhoods are about to be transformed.
And then we’re expected to trust them. That’s adorable.
There is also something about the City’s dealings with Terralux that smells a little funny to me. The City says Opportunity Site proposals were evaluated partly according to “developer capacity and track record.” Terralux emerged as the highest-scoring proponent for 791 Arundel -and for 144 Fanshaw Street and 300 Tokio Street as well. That’s quite a haul of public property.
I’d still like to see the scoring and complete evaluation. I’d like to know how Administration concluded Terralux was the best proponent for all three properties and what Council knew when those decisions were being discussed behind closed doors. But there’s another question I particularly want answered.
When did Terralux first want 791 Arundel?
Councillor Kasey Etreni said during the August 11 meeting that Terralux wanted the property. Did that interest begin after the City identified Arundel as an Opportunity Site, or did Terralux want 791 before it became one? We know the City was showing its Opportunity Sites to the development community by October 2024, months before the public Call for Proposals. So, when did Terralux first approach the City about 791? Who did they speak to? And did any of those conversations occur before this particular piece of parkland became an “Opportunity”?
That would be rather interesting to know, especially because 791 was never the entire geographic conversation. There is 755 Arundel. We don’t have to wonder whether 755 entered the picture. Hello, potential future access road.
Traffic Review material for the Terralux development depicted both 791 and 755 Arundel as the “subject lands.” The latest development concept also introduced a “future entrance” on the eastern side of 791, pointing toward additional Boulevard Lake Complex parkland and a possible future road connection. So, I’m finished asking whether somebody has thought beyond 791. They have. The question is how far beyond it they’ve thought.
And while we’re looking around, the City owns more property across the street from 791, beside Chartwell’s. Our little map is getting crowded: 791. 755. City-owned land across the street. Boulevard Lake. LPH. Maybe none of it connects. Maybe some of it does. But after watching what happened to 791, I’m not particularly inclined to regard the amount of parkland on the City’s potential surplus list as municipal housekeeping.
Was this what our insider was talking about? Was it 755? Future access? A larger vision around Boulevard Lake? Something involving LPH? I don’t know. But every new piece makes that warning harder to dismiss.
And then there is Stantec. Because apparently this story needed one more layer. Stantec has done work for the City and has also done work connected to Terralux and 791 Arundel. Large consulting firms routinely work for municipalities and private developers, and overlapping clients don’t establish wrongdoing. But from the outside, the optics deserve scrutiny.
The City. Terralux. Stantec. It’s quite the municipal-development ménage à trois.
Residents are entitled to know what Stantec was doing for the City, what it was doing for Terralux, when those engagements occurred and whether the roles overlapped in any way relevant to Arundel. Perhaps there’s absolutely nothing there. Wonderful. Then this should be an exceptionally easy question to answer.
And that brings us back to the evening of November 5, 2025. Current River residents attended a ward meeting where “Growth” was on the agenda. The City was promoting its Smart Growth vision while Administration already had its preferred Opportunity Site proposal for Arundel -then approximately 600 units. By the time Current River was being introduced to growth, walkability and the wonderful future of denser communities, City Hall wasn’t standing at a blank easel asking residents what they’d like painted there.
There was already a picture.
The problem was Current River didn’t admire it. More than 100 residents showed up that night and protested the targeting of Arundel parkland and the 600-unit proposal.
Frankly, we lost our shit.
It was that same night that I began to wonder whether that meeting was supposed to begin easing Current River into a bigger idea: a denser, redeveloped, “walkable” community surrounding Boulevard Lake. Walkable is another favourite. The trails around Boulevard Lake are remarkably walkable already. People manage it every day without the assistance of a seven-storey apartment building. Perhaps what Thunder Bay’s urban forest has been missing all these years is a bulldozer.
Then came August 11. Before voting against the Arundel rezoning, Councillor Andrew Foulds spoke pointedly about the implications of the decision and LPH. Five weeks earlier, every member present had voted to make acquiring LPH for development the City’s number-one advocacy priority. He wasn’t explaining LPH to twelve people who had never heard of it. He was talking to colleagues who knew exactly what he was talking about.
Council knew it was pursuing 144 acres at LPH. Council knew there was development interest. Council knew Terralux wanted 791. Council knew about 755. And Council knew all of this while residents were asking why Thunder Bay’s housing needs required sacrificing this particular forest.
And here’s another piece we shouldn’t overlook: the week following the August 11th rezoning vote, a City delegation was at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference pursuing the LPH property with the province.
That wasn’t some bright idea City Hall came up with after approving Arundel. The groundwork was already underway. Council had formally made the LPH land transfer its top advocacy priority on July 7 -more than a month before the Arundel vote. At the AMO conference, the City asked for right of first refusal on the former hospital property. Infrastructure Ontario reportedly told the delegation that no other provincial ministries wanted it and that Thunder Bay would be “the first ones at the table.” Nothing was yet committed in writing, but the development vision being discussed was enormous: potentially 2,000 homes and what Councillor Trevor Giertuga described as a “full community within the community.”
So consider the chronology.
July 7: Council makes acquiring 144 acres at LPH for development its number-one advocacy priority.
August 11: Council approves the rezoning of 791 Arundel despite overwhelming neighbourhood opposition.
The following week: City representatives are sitting down with the province trying to secure first crack at LPH.
Council knew it was pursuing 144 acres at LPH. Council knew there was development interest. Council knew its delegation was about to pursue that property with the province. Council knew Terralux wanted 791. Council knew about 755. And Council knew all of this while residents were asking why Thunder Bay’s housing needs required sacrificing this particular forest.
Then nine members voted to approve the rezoning.
So, name the “numerous” parties interested in LPH. If Terralux isn’t among them, say so. If Terralux is among them, Thunder Bay has a right to know. And if there is any contemplated relationship among LPH, 791 Arundel, 755 Arundel, and the future transportation network around Boulevard Lake, perhaps City Hall could find a spare afternoon to mention it to the people who live here.
Because this entire episode has become an exercise in municipal sleight of hand.
Look over here: housing crisis!
Don’t look over there: 20,000-plus units of capacity on vacant and underused land, or the 144 acres at LPH being pursued for development.
Look over here: walkable communities!
Don’t look over there: the urban forest you’re already walking through.
Look over here: 360 units! Please forget that the selected proposal started at approximately 600.
Look over here: 791 Arundel! For heaven’s sake, stop asking about 755 and the LPH.
The absurdity becomes almost offensive when you leave Current River. Drive May Street, Syndicate or Simpson and look at the vacant properties, underused land and deteriorating buildings that have struggled year after year. Then drive to Boulevard Lake and look at the mature forest, wildlife habitat, trails and public greenspace -the kind of public amenity municipalities spend fortunes trying to create.
And appreciate the sheer genius of Thunder Bay’s redevelopment strategy: allow the places desperately needing redevelopment to fester while redeveloping the places that don’t.
Mayor Boshcoff spoke on August 11 about people wanting to live somewhere nice where they can enjoy trails. Indeed, they do. One traditional way of ensuring residents can enjoy trails is to refrain from building apartment complexes on top of the surrounding greenspace. Call me old-fashioned.
The City says Thunder Bay has capacity for more than 20,000 homes on vacant and underused lands. The Opportunity Sites contemplated approximately 1,385 units. At the same time, the City was pursuing another 144 acres at LPH, where the mayor says numerous parties had already brought forward fairly advanced plans.
At some point this stops being a housing argument and starts looking like a land-development strategy.
And I want to know the whole strategy. Release the competing proposals, evaluation, and scoring. Release every reasonably severable piece of the closed-session reports. Tell us what’s been discussed about 755. Name the parties interested in LPH and tell us whether Terralux is one of them. Tell us when Terralux first expressed interest in 791 and explain Stantec’s respective roles for the City and Terralux.
Northern Hoot put these questions to the City, Stantec, and Terralux before publication. We asked the City when it first became aware of Terralux’s interest in 791, what discussions have occurred around 755 and future access, whether Terralux has been involved in discussions concerning LPH, and who those “numerous groups and organizations” interested in LPH actually are. We also asked Stantec to explain its respective work for the City and Terralux and the timing of those engagements.
Reaching Terralux itself proved considerably more interesting than it should have. For a company selected by the City to purchase and develop three pieces of public property, Terralux has remarkably little public-facing contact information. We could not locate a publicly listed business email for Julie Tsekouras or an obvious media contact through which to submit questions directly, so we asked Stantec to either provide an appropriate Terralux contact or forward our questions to the company.
Maybe Terralux simply isn’t big on email. But for a developer doing millions of dollars in land deals with the City of Thunder Bay, being this difficult for the public to contact is, at the very least, peculiar.
The City responded by pointing to the June 2025 public Call for Proposals and directing us to the Freedom of Information process for records requiring a more detailed search. It did not answer the questions about any earlier Terralux interest, 755, LPH, or the identities of the interested parties. Northern Hoot already has an FOI request underway seeking records that may help answer some of them. Stantec did not respond before publication, nor did we receive a response from Terralux to the questions we asked Stantec to forward.
Maybe our insider was wrong. Maybe there is no larger plan. Maybe 755 will remain untouched. Maybe Terralux has absolutely no interest in LPH. Maybe Julie’s husband really was taking in the scenery after Council approved the rezoning Terralux wanted. Maybe all these dots have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Fine. Show us.
Until then, City Hall has created an information vacuum and filled it with closed doors. When Council knows more than the public, developers know more than the public, Administration knows more than the public, and decisions involving public land march forward while its owners are fed information one carefully managed piece at a time, “trust us” becomes insulting.
Thunder Bay, look at what’s happening to your public land. Look at the neighbourhoods City Hall leaves waiting for investment while it turns its attention to parks. Look at who gets invited into the room and who gets ten minutes at a microphone after much of the important work has already happened. Then ask yourself who this City is really being planned for.
Because from where I’m sitting, City Hall and Council appear to think the joke is on us.
And I’m not laughing.
