Ashley Chapman, vice president of Chapman's Ice Cream in Markdale, Ont., says his company will buy the local school as a way to keep it open. ( MICHELLE SIU FOR THE TORONTO STAR )In one rural Ontario community, an ice cream company has offered to scoop up a school to stop it from being shut down. Worried about the impact of the loss of the only elementary in Markdale, Chapman’s Ice Cream has a sweet deal: it will spend about $1 million to buy the building, and lease it back to the local board. “Simply put, for the first time in literally decades, we have people wanting to invest in this area, this community and this town,” said vice-president Ashley Chapman, who himself attended Beavercrest Community School. Chapman’s has started the first phase of a major expansion and expects to employ about 1,000 in total in five years’ time, he said.

Source: thestar November 21, 2016 23:03 UTC