Toronto waterfront
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The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the Municipality of Toronto, Canada. It spans 46 kilometers between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek to the West and the Rouge River in the East. The entire lakeshore has been significantly altered from its natural state prior to European settlement.
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Revitalization plans
In late 1999, the most recent plans to revitalize the central area of the Waterfront (between Dufferin Street and Leslie Street) were unveiled and the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (http://towaterfront.ca/) was set up. The corporation is guided by a nine-member board of directors (http://towaterfront.ca/thirdnavloader.php?id=&first=3e91124880c2c&second=3eb7a981d2010&third=3eb20512ed279|) with three members appointed by each of the three (Federal, Provincial and Municipal) levels of government. All three levels appointed the Chair, Financier Robert Fung (http://towaterfront.ca/fourthnavloader.php?first=3e91124880c2c&second=3eb7a981d2010&third=3eb20512ed279&fourth=3e9c261784566|). In 2003, the corporation appointed a new CEO and President, John W. Campbell (http://www.towaterfront.ca/news.php?id=3e9c624b20aa4).
The Central Waterfront area was once an industrial and shipping area. Decades of attempts to rehabilitate the area have been made, but none have been successful. Many politicians have promised change, but it has yet to occur.
The current revitalization exercise has seen some progress on planning for areas such as the Bayfront (http://towaterfront.ca/thirdnavloader.php?first=3e9112548cd89&second=3e9ba9dc309fc&third=3fd0b221b0dbd|East) (Yonge Street to Cherry Street) and the Don Lands (http://towaterfront.ca/thirdnavloader.php?first=3e9112548cd89&second=3e9ba9dc309fc&third=3fd773c147df1|West) (North of the railway tracks and between Parliament Street and the Don River). These plans are expected to be
There are a number of projects that are underway (http://towaterfront.ca/topnavloader.php?first=3e9112548cd89) and some that are completed.
There have been concerns raised in the community about how the health of the ecology is being put behind the drive for City Building. There is also concern that projects are moving forward without a sustainable integrated energy strategy, even though the revitalization corporation budgeted $50 million dollars to undertake this study very early on in the process.
Anti-poverty activists have also questioned plans that do not include subsidized housing or help for the poor.
The jurisdictional issue is a complex one and it is currently causing the visions that have been formed through public consultations and in communications from official bodies over many years to be distorted. The federal government has authority over port facilities and some issues that may be subject to Federal Environmental Assessments (such as projects effecting bodies of water). The province controls the municipality, has Environmental Assessment requirements, has a stake in energy generation and usually makes itself involved in any large ventures that the municipality is attempting to undertake. The municipality has some direct control of the zoning of some sites (not owned by other governments) and responsibility for infrastructure like roads and waste management.
All three levels own land in the area (71% of total land in central waterfront area) divided among a number of ministries, crown corporations, agencies and other public bodies.
It was promised by all three levels of Government that the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation was to oversee and harmonize the process. Unfortunately as of early 2005 infighting and jockeying between Governments continue to bog down the process.
Major issues
- An important obstacle is the Gardiner Expressway a raised highway that runs just north of the lakeshore and also serves to separate the city from the lake. Almost all plans call for moving or burying the Gardiner, but any such plan would be extremely expensive.
- The Front Street Extension is a planned extension of Front Street and by far the most expensive road ever proposed in Canada.
- The Portlands Energy Centre is a large electrical generating station that has been identified as out of scale for the carrying capacity of the local air and watersheds.
- The Toronto Island Airport is an existing airport on parkland. Plans to expand the airport or to link it to the mainland by a bridge are strongly opposed by many.
- Renaturalization of the Don River mouth. Straightened in order to accommodate industry, the lower Don Lands are planed to be “renaturalized” and the surrounding flood plain area, including the downtown core are going to be flood proofed by building a berm. Ecologists are calling for a return to the lacustrine marsh that existed in Ashbridges Bay prior to extensive land filling by European settlers.
History
The shores of Lake Ontario today are mostly landfill and extend up to a couple of kilometers from the original shoreline.
The Ashbridges Bay was filled in and the Portlands area (Cherry St to Leslie St) was created in the early 1900’s. The bay was filled in partly due to concerns about public health – locals had disposed of sewage, farm animal carcasses and household waste in the bay for years.
The Waterfront functioned as an industrial area for many years. Industry began to move out in droves the 1970’s, leaving the public with heavily polluted sites (some of the main uses of the waterfront were oil and coal storage, waste disposal and incineration, and heavy manufacturing).
The first efforts at change were launched in the 1970s and resulted in the construction of some facilities, most notably the Harbourfront Centre. The nearby CN Tower and SkyDome were also linked to improving the area. These projects, with the exception of the tower, saw massive cost overruns and became heavily criticized.
In 1988 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called a Royal Commission into the waterfront that was headed by former mayor David Crombie. It reported in 1992 with a detailed, but expensive plan of environmentally sound development. Few of the recommendation were carried out, however with nothing done by Bob Rae's provincial government or the federal government.
Toronto's bids for the 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympics saw plans for much of the new facilities to be located along the waterfront, all three levels of government committed to spend a great deal if the games were won, but on both attempts Toronto lost and the waterfront went unchanged.
The recent bid (http://www.toronto.ca/toronto_international/pdf/expo2015_final_report.pdf) by Toronto for the World’s Fair 2015 plans to use waterfront sites to accommodate the fair if the City is successful.
In June 2004, the company Canadian American Transportation Systems (CATS) began regular passenger/vehicle ferry service between Pier 52 and Rochester, New York using the vessel Spirit of Ontario I. The service used a marketing name called "The Breeze". While Rochester had a custom-built ferry terminal, the Toronto terminal was a temporary facility, using trailers in a container yard near the end of Cherry Street for security and customs screening facilities while a permanent marine passenger terminal was still under construction.
Unfortunately CATS discontinued the service after only 11 weeks; among the problems cited was the absence of a permanent marine passenger terminal in Toronto. The vessel was sold in a bankruptcy sale in February 2005 to Rochester Ferry Company LLC, a subsidiary of the City of Rochester. In April 2005, Rochester Ferry Company LLC announced that the Rochester-Toronto ferry service using Spirit of Ontario I would return, operated by Bay Ferries Great Lakes Limited and using the marketing name "The Cat". The Toronto Port Authority expects to have the permanent marine passenger terminal completed by May 2005, before ferry service resumes.
External links
- City of Toronto: Waterfront (http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/waterfront/)
- Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (http://www.towaterfront.ca/index.php)
- Toronto Port Authority (http://www.torontoport.com/)