Next week looms large in the troubled history of 12 provincial residential facilities, including locations in Oro-Medonte Township and Muskoka.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba will decide Monday whether to approve a $36-million settlement reached last fall between the province and the Toronto-based legal firm acting on behalf of former residents at a dozen facilities like the former Adult Occupational Centre in Edgar.

“If approved, the settlement claims process would start within 38 days,” said Jody Brown, a lawyer with Koskie Minsky LLP, a Toronto-based firm that was involved with the $35-million class-action settlement between the province and former residents of the Huronia Regional Centre (HRC).

During the half-day hearing, Belobaba will hear from both proponents and potential settlement opponents before ruling on whether to allow the class action. He will also be asked to approve Koskie Minsky’s $3.7-million fee for its work on the case.

So far, about 250 individuals have contacted Brown’s firm — a number he expects will rise significantly if the lawsuit gets the green light, since a larger media campaign will begin to alert people to the class-action settlement.

“The Crown will pay for all of that,” Brown said, noting the media blitz would likely include TV ads, radio spots, print listings and direct mailings.

The lawsuit covers those who may have suffered harm while living at the Edgar facility between Jan. 1, 1966, and March 31, 1999, along with eligible former residents staying at the Muskoka Centre in Gravenhurst between Aug. 28, 1973, and June 30, 1993. It’s estimated 8,000 people once lived at one of the 12 named institutions.

If approved by the court, compensation claims will be assessed by an independent claims administrator and overseen by Ian Binnie, a former Supreme Court justice.

The maximum one can expect from the settlement is $42,000, with a sliding scale used to determine compensation based on the “severity of harm someone suffered.”

Francesca Allodi-Ross is a staff lawyer with the Orillia-based Community Legal Clinic, which provides free legal-aid services in Simcoe County, Haliburton and Kawartha Lakes.

“We have started representing clients that had been at Edgar,” she said, noting those who might need representation or help making their claims can call her office at 800-461-8953.

“We represented quite a few for the HRC (settlement).”

The involved facilities were shuttered between 1977 and 1999, a move the province said related to a government decision to close institutions for adults with developmental disabilities and move residents to homes in the community, where they could get appropriate supports.

In announcing the settlement last fall, Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur said in a release she hopes the agreement is a step forward in addressing “a painful chapter of our province’s history” while helping “former residents who suffered harm move forward with dignity.”

Besides the aforementioned facilities, compensation may also be available for those who stayed at the Bluewater Centre (Goderich), D’Arcy Place (Cobourg), Durham Centre for the Developmentally Handicapped (Whitby), L.S. Penrose Centre (Kingston), Midwestern Regional Centre (Palmerston), Northwestern Regional Centre (Thunder Bay), Oxford Mental Health Centre (Woodstock), Oxford Regional Centre (Woodstock), Pine Ridge Centre (Aurora), Prince Edward Heights (Picton) and St. Lawrence Regional Centre (Brockville).