$1.7B transformation begins in Georgian Bay's Port McNicoll - Victorian resort village taking shape on former CPR lands

Port McNicoll, once one of CPR’s biggest terminals and the departing point for rich tourists travelling the Great Lakes aboard luxurious passenger ships, is about to make a comeback.  

The 2,300 residents in this struggling southern Georgian Bay community are holding their breath to see if the developer who bought the Canadian Pacific’s prime waterfront land — 825 acres with an incredible 10 kilometres of shoreline — can transform Port McNicoll into the region’s new address for luxury cottage living, while still maintaining the village’s historic character.  

The former CP lands cover so much territory here that when the $100-million US deal was announced in 2006, newspapers reported that the developer had bought the whole village — lock, stock and barrel.
 

Docks and water rights

The ambitious $1.7-billion redevelopment project includes plans to create a Victorian village with about 650 residential units and 50,000 square feet of commercial retail space, a hotel and marina. There will be a mix of secluded estate-size treed lots and waterfront lots with 100 feet of bay views, docks and water rights.  

Construction is slowly getting under way, with the private development receiving the blessing of Tay Township, whose municipal borders encompass Port McNicoll. Tay includes three urban communities on the southern shores of Georgian Bay, with Port McNicoll to the west, Victoria Harbour in the centre and Waubaushene to the east. Rural Tay boasts more than 10,000 acres of agricultural land, with more than three dozen farms dotting the landscape.            

About 10,100 people live in Tay Township full-time, with the population growing in summer when cottagers and boaters arrive, though the numbers aren’t as high as they used to be. The township is working to develop four-season tourism to help strengthen the local economies of each of its distinct urban communities, which are linked together by the Tay Shore Trail, an amazing ribbon of public space meandering along the Georgian Bay coastline.  

The township, along with all of Simcoe County, is preparing for unprecedented growth. As one of the communities in Simcoe County, Tay Township’s future growth is dictated by the province’s 2006 Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which includes the separate cities of Barrie and Orillia. This area continues to experience high levels of building activity, mainly because it is a very attractive location for growth, with easy access to Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area and the Hamilton/Niagara region. Under the provincial plan, Barrie is designated as the lead urban growth centre.  

Vision includes a bustling downtown centre

The population of the Greater Simcoe County Area has nearly doubled since 1981, growing from about 240,000 to almost 440,000 in 2006. By 2031, the province estimates that figure will climb to 667,000. Local municipalities are to plan for growth in their own communities by setting development and employment targets in their Official Plans, based on the provincial targets.  

The report guiding the Simcoe County exercise, the 2008 Simcoe Area Growth Plan, sets the population growth level in Tay Township at 1,200 by 2031. With a 2006 population of 10,100, that means Tay should grow to 11,300 by 2031.  In terms of growth, the township will lag behind nearby Midland, the commercial and population hub for North Simcoe, and Penetanguishene.  

Port McNicoll is the closest of Tay’s urban centres to Midland, which lies west of the village — it’s about eight kilometres, or a 14-minute drive to downtown Midland. While the downtowns of all three Tay urban centres are struggling, Port McNicoll’s proximity to the area’s shopping hub has seen this village’s commercial sector particularly hard hit in recent years. In fact, there’s not much here now beyond a food store and a couple of small restaurants.  

In Port McNicoll’s golden age — it was known as Chicago of the North because of all the freight and passengers passing through its port — it was normal to see well-heeled tourists strolling through the village, which developed near the water, despite plans in 1911 to carve out a massive subdivision to the south, near Highway 12.

Tourists came by the thousands in Roaring Twenties

Two stone pillars are all that remain of the proposed Victoria Heights, which was to cover 100 acres of land. According to the township, the sidewalks and piping were laid, but the houses were never built. Wisely, the village developed closer to Georgian Bay. As for the sidewalks in the doomed subdivision, they were torn up during the Depression under a make-work project. The property, at 5020 Talbot St., is still undeveloped.  

Back to those rich tourists. They came by the thousands in the Roaring Twenties to board the elegant twin passenger ships Assisiniboia and Keewatin, which would service the Port McNicoll terminal for more than 40 years. The CPR’s famous gardens, developed at the docks to gentrify the passenger waiting area, became a tourist attraction. Once onboard the ships, passengers enjoyed the height of luxury, with staterooms furnished in mahogany and brass, a two-deck flower lounge complete with stained glass windows, and live music and dancing on an oak dance floor.  

As Canadian Pacific Railway’s main terminal between Eastern and Western Canada for both freight and passengers, the local economy was strong for many years. Things started to change in the 1940s, when schedules were cut back as passenger ship travel on the Great Lakes slowly went out of fashion, and one by one, the CPR’s great freighters went out of service and were sold for scrap.  Shortly after the passenger ships’ last runs, CPR closed down the port for good in1965.  

Port McNicoll never did recover. Jobs were lost. Stores closed. People moved away.   Up until 2006, when the developer announced he had purchased the CPR waterfront lands and would create a new, more prosperous village in a style that harkened back to a happier time, there wasn’t much to cheer about here. After a long wait, signs in 2009 that a new deluxe cottage community really is taking shape on the waterfront are adding a new energy to Port McNicoll, proud of its past but anxious to get on with the future.  

Community's past will be preserved

While the cleanup has begun, transforming the waterfront from its industrial past won’t happen overnight. There is much work to do. After all, it’s not easy to bury more than a century of shipping history. A huge slice of that history was recently discovered by a local resident out walking his dog: he spotted a metal ring buried in the ground near the slip and, when workers started digging, they unearthed a gigantic anchor weighing almost 8,000 pounds. The developer, according to his Trumpeter newsletter, aims to incorporate the anchor into the community master plan.  

In the meantime, Tay Township is preparing for growth by implementing a revitalization plan aimed at polishing up the downtown areas in Port McNicoll and Victoria Harbour (see separate profile on Victoria Harbour). The aim is to create stronger local economies and to attract new small businesses by promoting the communities’ waterfront assets. So far, the downtowns have been beautified with flower planters and decorative streetlights, and parkettes featuring gardens, gazebos and benches have been developed. Next is an incentive program of tax deferrals and grants to encourage business owners to improve the appearance of their commercial buildings. 

“We are working toward creating communities where you can arrive by our fabulous Tay Shore Trail or by boat for lunch on one of our outdoor patios and stroll through our shops on our tree-lined streets,” the township says in its revitalization report.  

While the former CPR lands do make up a large chunk of Port McNicoll, there is still plenty of public waterfront to enjoy. To the north of the built-up village, the 14-acre Patterson Park offers spectacular views over Georgian Bay, with a great swimming beach off the tip. The park is home to the annual Portorama celebration, with activities throughout the Victoria holiday weekend, including a fireworks display.  

Georgian Bay cruise offers up a whole new view of things

Tay Township boasts 43 kilometres of Georgian Bay shoreline, with very distinct communities to explore along the way. If you want to get out on the water, a short drive to Midland will take you to the town dock, where you can board the 300-passenger Miss Midland for a cruise of Georgian Bay's amazing 30,000 Islands.  

Bordering Midland is the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, where you can take a canoe ride through the marsh and take a hike on miles of trails. Wye Marsh is designated as an “Important Bird Area” and provides nesting habitat to some uncommon species, including the trumpeter swan. In winter, there’s 25 kilometres of groomed trails to ski on.  

Of the three urban communities in Tay Township, Victoria Harbour, with an estimated population of 3,100, is the largest, followed by Port McNicoll, with about 2,300 permanent residents, and Waubaushene with about 1,363.

While Port McNicoll is about to go upscale, there is still affordable housing to be found here, including the “Salt Box” style workhouses that used to house the CPR’s senior staff employees. Most of these houses have been renovated and are now semi-detached dwellings.  

Recently listed waterfront property in Port McNicoll included a two-bedroom 838-square-foot bungalow cottage with access to Georgian Bay for $114,900, and an older three-bedroom 1,000-square-foot house near the new waterfront development for $155,000. On the upper end, a chalet style 2,045-square-foot home, built in 1973, was priced at $749,000 — complete with all furnishings and panoramic views across Midland Bay and out over Georgian Bay.