In mid-January 2023, Harbourfront quietly announced it was going to remove its iconic skating rink, and replace it with a concrete "plaza", due to lack of funds. Yet Harbourfront had recently received a $20 million federal grant. The Community wasn't consulted. All three elected representatives of the various levels of government (MP Kevin Vuong, MPP Chris Glover, and City Councillor Ausma Malik) have objected. Harbourfront appears to be going ahead anyway. WFA and other community groups are meeting with the federal government. Please help by signing Kevin Vuong's petition here directed to the House of Commons.
Thanks to all who came to our Zoom event; a recording is here.
Our speakers included Toronto City Ward 12 Councillor Josh Matlow, who has emerged as a key voice in the jets debate, and former Chair of Waterfront Toronto Mark Wilson with a fascinating presentation on how the Alto high speed rail project will cut into BBTCA's already declining short-hop flight business to Ottawa and Montreal, undercutting the already weak economic case for jets at BBTCA.
We also had a spontaneous guest appearance by former Toronto top planner Paul Bedford.
The very same evening, this great article in Spacing magazine appeared, featuring the image shown above of what a jet expansion at the Island Airport would actually look like.
Former Toronto Mayor David Crombie, who headed the Crombie Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, released an open letter to PM Mark Carney yesterday urging the Federal Government not to support the massive expansion of Billy Bishop Toronto City Centre Airport recently proposed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, without carefully study.
Ford unilaterally announced recently that the Ontario and Federal governments would expand the airport to accommodate jets, and would proceed without environmental review; Ford said he would expropriate airport lands owned by the City of Toronto to cut it out of the decision-making process.
A unilateral move by the Province like that would undermine generations of work by all three governments on the revitalization of the waterfront, says Crombie. Everything about the expansion proposal should be carefully studied to make sure it doesn’t upset the balance of different uses on the waterfront.
We couldn’t agree more!
Happy 90th birthday, David Crombie!