Demolition of old Prince Edward Home nearing halfway mark

The demolition of the old Prince Edward Home is about 40 per cent complete, according to the minister of transportation, infrastructure and energy.

The province began tearing down the building at the beginning of June.

"The first wing is almost completely down. That's the one that was built in the '30s," Steven Myers told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin, in an interview last week.

The building was erected in 1933 as a hospital and was later converted into a nursing home, but has remained vacant since 2015. 

In the coming weeks, the province plans to move onto the next phase — the part of the hospital built in the '60s, Myers said.

"They are just going through it now and removing any of the hazardous materials or any materials they are trying to salvage throughout it."

Experts are on-site to deal with any hazardous materials, Myers said.

"Any of the demolition that has been done, has been done cleanly."

All in all you can have a brick from the wall

A lot of the material being removed from the building is older and probably can't be reused, but other pieces will be given away, Myers said.

"Some of the brick that we are taking down, we are going to put them out there for people to take as mementos."

The estimated $2.3 million demolition project is one of the largest taken on by the province. The closest in size was the demolition of Montague high school.

Return to green space

Myers said the project is still on budget and is expected to be complete by November. The plan remains to return it to green space.

"We hope to have it all landscaped and grassed out by November," Myers said.

Myers said the province will maintain ownership of the space, but if Charlottetown wanted to utilize it, the province would be open to talks.

During question period Tuesday, Green MLA Ole Hammarlund asked if government was consulting with residents in the area to see what they wanted done with the space.

Myers said if a plan comes forward to develop the area "then we would have to consult just by virtue of the way government does business."

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