Ed Smith, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

For years, St. Catharines firefighters have answered call after call about the former General Motors property on Ontario Street, responding to fires, signs of smoke and medical emergencies at the deteriorating industrial site in the heart of the city. 

Numerous reports detail a high level of risk to firefighters entering the crumbling buildings, confirming what residents have been saying for years: the site has been a magnet for the homeless, adventurous youth and scrap hunters rummaging through the contaminated heaps of debris, tearing copper wire from walls and collecting other materials from the half-demolished buildings. 

The fires on the site put out by emergency crews were commonly caused by heaps of wire being burned to remove the plastic coating from the copper. 

The reports, which date back to 2019, cast doubt on claims by St. Catharines City staff and elected officials who have repeatedly claimed the site is secure and no complaints were received until recently, which triggered property standards enforcement action that was finally initiated earlier this year. 

The official incident reports prepared by the fire crews who responded to these calls, and obtained by The Pointer, document a vacant, partially demolished industrial site where firefighters have encountered burning rubbish, hanging debris, open elevator shafts filled with water, missing railings and numerous other physical hazards. In total, more than 55 separate incidents requiring a fire department response at the site between 2019 and March 2026 are documented. The volume and detail of those reports stand in sharp contrast to statements by City officials who have claimed the condition of the buildings was not sufficiently understood to warrant a Property Standards response, until a complaint was made to the bylaw department this May.

In one report from April of 2024, firefighters responded to calls of an open burn behind the site at 2:30 in the morning. The route they would have needed to take to locate the source of smoke is described as “treacherous and unsafe,” ultimately halting their search because of the danger.

In a report from December 2021, firefighters wrote, “there are still numerous hazards in this building.” 

“Firefighters have documented notes to help indicate what hazards exist. Fire personnel are aware of the hazards associated with the property and will respond appropriately to any emergency while taking care not to assume any greater risk than necessary based on the call for service,” City of St. Catharines officials responding on behalf of the Fire Service said when asked by The Pointer to comment on the hazards the property poses to firefighters. 

While highlighting that call volumes for the property have reduced significantly, officials acknowledged that “while many vacant properties across the City can pose risks, the GM property provides unique conditions and challenges for our fire crews.”

For years, residents have pressed their elected council members to address the hazards, and ultimately get the entire 55-acre site cleaned up, but since GM sold the property more than a decade ago the giant industrial structures left behind have crumbled and the expansive blight right next to downtown has deteriorated into a post-apocalyptic scene filled with toxic chemicals, asbestos and open pits that are easily accessible to anyone. 

Petitions bearing thousands of signatures have been presented to officials at City Hall, with residents warning that the decaying buildings are not only an eyesore but a magnet for youth and unhoused people, posing an immediate physical danger. 

A large billboard was put up next to the property by a local community group, demanding the clean-up of the former GM property.

The calls have been met by a wall of political inaction. 

The City’s most notable response was in July 2024 when officials sponsored the painting of the plywood hoarding surrounding the site, promoting the initiative under the banner of a “brighter, united community.” 

Much of the hoarding eventually withered after neglect. 

In May, the City finally issued Property Standards Orders covering the old industrial site. They identified and documented the serious deterioration throughout the partially demolished property, including structural instability, collapsed ceilings, corroded steel supports, unsafe stairways, unsecured openings, debris and other dangerous conditions.

The orders by staff represented a significant shift in Council’s approach to the property after years of criticism and public pressure. While the property owners have appealed the clean-up orders to the Superior Court, seeking to have them rescinded, the Property Standards Appeal Committee hearing exposed an apparent gap between the claims of city officials and what the Fire Service reports reveal. 

The hearing took place on June 25 and marked the first step in the legal challenge brought by the property owners and mortgage holders, who are seeking to have the City’s orders requiring the site to be made safe and brought into compliance withdrawn. 

During the hearing, committee members asked Bylaw Manager Paul Chudoba whether there had been previous orders or complaints concerning the structures. Chudoba’s response was short and to the point: “In regards to the structure and building, no formal record of complaint.”

When the question was revisited, he clarified: “With respect to the buildings no formal complaint record exists in regards to deterioration of the building structure.”

He claimed the City had no formal record documenting the condition of the buildings and that the compliance orders issued in May followed the receipt of a complaint that prompted an investigation. As Chudoba put it during the hearing: “When we receive a complaint we follow up on that complaint, a call for service is a call for service, we have a duty to respond and we do.” 

This apparently does not include reports from the City’s fire department.

On January 3, 2019, fire crews responded to the site after reports of a fire. No fire was found, but the first responders did find the “basement area below grade with open holes and 5’ or 6’ of water within.” 

Firefighters did not hesitate to label the danger to the public as a clear “fall and drowning hazard.” 

The report notes that a complaint was submitted to Trisha Pavelko, Bylaw Enforcement Co-ordinator. 

It’s unclear what was done about that complaint. City officials did not address what action was taken when The Pointer asked about the fire department reports that have only come to light after a freedom of information request.  

This was not the only complaint lodged by the fire department. 

In May 2021, after responding to reports of light smoke coming from one of the buildings on the property, firefighters reported that a “FPO (Fire Prevention Office) complaint form was submitted as fencing is not secure and building is unable to be secured.” 

It’s unclear what was done with this complaint. 

Numerous reports from citizens and advocates over the last ten years have identified numerous points of entry into the site, including gaps in gates that are meant to be locked shut; open gates at the rear of the property; fences that have blown over or been broken, and trenches dug beneath fencing allowing someone to crawl through. 

Subsequent reports from firefighters since 2019 provide a continuing record of the dangers posed by the property, extending through the most recent report reviewed by The Pointer, dated March 29, 2026. 

Throughout the records, firefighters described the vacant, partially demolished buildings as “full of hazards,” documenting conditions including hanging wires, open elevator shafts, missing railings and handrails, and “many trip and entanglement hazards.” 

Risks to firefighters and the general public have long been evident and extensively documented. Yet at numerous town-hall meetings in the spring of 2026, Mayor Mat Siscoe, supported by Ward Councillors Caleb Ratzlaff and Robin McPherson, repeatedly defended the City’s refusal to act, claiming property-standards enforcement could deter potential developers from pursuing the site. They warned residents that any enforcement action by the City could ultimately cost taxpayers as much as $100 million related to legal liability, suggesting the property owners could take action if forced to make the site safe, without publicly providing any explanation of their claim or how that dollar figure was reached by the council members.

There was no substantive public discussion at the meetings about the risks the property poses to first responders, despite all the documentation in the incident reports.

When City officials finally took action against the property owners in May of this year, facing mounting public pressure and a growing campaign ahead of October’s municipal vote, Mayor Siscoe, who is seeking re-election, suddenly changed his tune after years of claiming there was nothing the City could do. He stated in a public release that: “last week the city received a number of complaints related to the property located at 285 Ontario Street. Upon receiving those complaints, as a matter of course, the City conducted an inspection of the property. Following that inspection, it was determined that orders would be served on the owners of the property to make all necessary repairs to ensure public safety or to demolish the buildings.”

A freedom of information request by The Pointer for all complaints received by the City during May tells a different story. The records obtained through that request do not support the mayor’s account of what prompted the City’s action.

On May 2, a member of the public contacted the City through Citizens First (the St. Catharines customer service platform), asking when the mess at the former GM site would be cleaned up and questioning why bylaw enforcement could address an overgrown lawn but apparently not the condition of the massive former GM property right next to downtown.

In response, a bylaw officer was dispatched to the site on May 7 to conduct a waste inspection. The inspection found a “very minor amount of loose debris around the perimeter of the property,” while “no waste was observed” when the officer viewed the interior through the construction fence. The photographs accompanying the file make clear that the inspection focused on the publicly accessible side of the fencing surrounding the site, rather than the hazardous conditions inside the property itself.

Then, on May 19, a City building inspector notified bylaw manager Chudoba that “the building is open to trespass along Ontario St.” to which Chudoba instructed that a property standards file be “generated.”

Finally, the only other dialogue about the site was in the form of a question asked by The Pointer, when on May 20 a YouTube video showing young people exploring the site was sent to City officials for a story that highlighted the risks residents had been raising about the property’s threat to young people and the dangers they could encounter inside. The Pointer questioned why the City had continued to resist stronger enforcement measures at the site, particularly in light of the more decisive action it had recently taken at the vacant YMCA property. A similar YouTube video of an urban explorer walking around the abandoned facility prompted swift action by the municipality to close off entryways into the building.

In response to The Pointer’s email, City staff provided the property-standards orders on May 25, along with a statement from the mayor indicating that the City had finally taken action to have the site made safe and brought into compliance. The orders gave the property owners the option to either make the necessary repairs to bring the buildings into compliance or demolish them. The orders are now being contested by the property owners in court. 

The fire department was not the only source of warnings.

This January, the Coalition for a Better St. Catharines submitted a petition to City Hall signed by more than 1,200 residents. It told the mayor and council that: “The vacant and deteriorating buildings at the former GM site on Ontario St pose a hazard to the community, attract vandalism, and negatively impact the surrounding neighbourhood.”

The petition specifically asked Council to enforce vacant-building and property standards bylaws to make the site safe and hold the property owners accountable for the costs of compliance.

Upon receiving the petition staff and elected officials indicated a report responding to it would come to the public in the second quarter of 2026. 

As June approached and no report was forthcoming the City unilaterally extended the deadline to the third quarter. 

The public is still waiting for that report.

As previously reported by The Pointer, a recent analysis of a soil sample from the site found asbestos contamination. The potential presence of asbestos adds another serious risk factor that, based on the records reviewed, does not appear to have been taken into account by City officials or first responders. While the frequency of incidents at the site may have declined in recent years, calls continue.  

After losing their first legal appeal following the June 25 hearing, the property owners have now appealed to Ontario’s Superior Court, with a hearing scheduled for September 17 at the St. Catharines courthouse. Once again, the owners of the former GM site will seek to have the compliance orders rescinded. 

The outcome could determine the ultimate fate of the decaying property, and how much longer residents, including first responders, will have to live with the hazards it presents.

Email: ed.smith@thepointer.com

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