{"id":19299,"date":"2011-04-18T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=19299"},"modified":"2011-04-18T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T15:34:36","slug":"lorinc-let%e2%80%99s-play-ball-with-the-waterfront-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/04\/18\/lorinc-let%e2%80%99s-play-ball-with-the-waterfront-again\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Let\u2019s Play Ball with the Waterfront (Again)!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The brothers Ford launched a big boulder in the direction of Waterfront Toronto last week, first denigrating the agency\u2019s efforts as a \u201cboondoggle\u201d and a waste of taxpayers money, and then signaling that its budget is under review.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing there\u2019s an unspecified end game here, one that has little do to with the administration\u2019s insinuations about corporate misspending (e.g., Denzil Minnan-Wong\u2019s snide tweets about WT\u2019s \u201chigh salaried communications staff\u201d).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth having a quick look at the agency\u2019s spending plans and track record, because the numbers, all nicely audited and approved by the three shareholders, tell a substantially different tale than the Ford\u2019s fictional version.<\/p>\n

Between 2001 and 2010, the agency\u2019s latest statements<\/a> [PDF] indicate it has spent $725 million on a range of capital projects, including $182 million on utilities and flood plain protection (a provincial regulatory requirement before any private sector development can take place in the West Donlands); $177 million on public spaces; $120 million on land acquisition (i.e., assembling parcels that will be attractive to developers); and $197 million on transportation, the bulk of which has flowed through to GO Transit expansion and the Union Station-Pearson link.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s own budget documents<\/a> [PDF], Toronto\u2019s contribution to WT\u2019s total corporate costs from 2011 to 2019 runs to about $28 million, or just under 7% of the total outlay. Yes, some of the senior staff appear on the sunshine list, but the actual figures \u2014 as opposed to the fantasy version \u2014 suggests the gravy train didn\u2019t spend a lot of time at WT\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, the city\u2019s budget documents offer some much more revealing clues about the Fords\u2019 intentions. A Queen\u2019s Quay LRT, for example, is still part of the long-term capital plan. The reason it\u2019s there, despite the Fords\u2019 well-known aversion to streetcars, is that WT\u2019s plans are subject to the agency\u2019s tripartite approvals process, meaning the brothers can\u2019t just hit the delete button, as is their wont.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that on March 9, a team of three in-house lobbyists from Rogers \u2014 including the president of Rogers Media, the division that owns the company’s sports properties — paid a visit to Doug Ford, ostensibly to talk about cell phone towers.<\/p>\n

Now, as far as I know, city bureaucrats rubber-stamp cell phone tower applications, so it\u2019s difficult to know why Rogers \u2014 which owns the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre and is famously on the prowl for an NFL franchise \u2014 would need to dispatch a platoon of high-ranking arm-twisters to chat up Doug on such a quotidian matter. Perhaps something else came up in the course of a congenial conversation.<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, as my colleague Marcus Gee reported in the Globe and Mail on Saturday<\/a>, Doug a month later has found himself musing publicly about the Hearn Generating Station as a venue for a NFL football stadium. He\u2019s certainly not the first businessman to think about building such a facility on the portlands. Various schemes have surfaced over the years, including a smelly gambit by the former city agency TEDCO to extend grocery magnet Steve Stavros\u2019 lease on a large chunk of waterfront real estate that looked to be a potential stadium site (the secret deal was later nixed).<\/p>\n

Tactically, then, the Fords\u2019 conspicuously public aspersions about WT may in fact be aimed at prompting the other two shareholders to crack open the agency\u2019s plans so they can re-arrange the long-range capital budget and cancel the sorts of investments the Fords don\u2019t care for. After all, an NFL stadium certainly won\u2019t get built without a generous dollop of gravy from the public sector, and it seems as if Doug\u2019s had some ideas on where the city can find those dollars.<\/p>\n

The remarkable point about all this back channel maneuvering is that the target of their opprobrium, Waterfront Toronto, has been scrupulously, and sometimes frustratingly, transparent about the way it has gone about its business.<\/p>\n

They consult relentlessly, follow regulatory procedures to the letter, expose their plans to extensive public and professional scrutiny, and rely on a meticulous approach to procurement, which is how they\u2019ve attracted<\/a>, in the past three years, developers with very deep pockets, including Houston-based Hines, one of the world\u2019s largest real estate firms, with $23 billion in property assets.<\/p>\n

Despite the mayor\u2019s wearying rhetoric about sole-sourcing and respect for taxpayers, the brothers\u2019 boundless contempt for public process and transparency continues to astonish, and stands in stark contrast to the way WT operates.<\/p>\n

Maybe a football stadium on the Hearn site is a good idea. Certainly, the SkyDome played an unexpectedly important catalyst role in the redevelopment of the rail lands. But if the gambit here is that the brothers want a football stadium, and if they want Waterfront Toronto and the other two shareholders to re-direct waterfront revitalization funding for such a venture, why not take the high road?<\/p>\n

Even though he skips the meetings, Rob Ford does have a seat on the Waterfront board, and of course he has close personal ties to the federal minister in charge of the agency (Jim Flaherty). Yet instead of engaging the agency and the public in a straightforward debate about the idea on its merits, Doug and the ventriloquist dummy in the mayor\u2019s office seem to be trying to, well, fake right.<\/p>\n

The hypocrisy is stunning.<\/p>\n

photo by Sam Javanrouh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The brothers Ford launched a big boulder in the direction of Waterfront Toronto last week, first denigrating the agency\u2019s efforts as a \u201cboondoggle\u201d and a waste of taxpayers money, and then signaling that its budget is under review. I\u2019m guessing there\u2019s an unspecified end game here, one that has little do to with the administration\u2019sContinue reading “LORINC: Let\u2019s Play Ball with the Waterfront (Again)!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[17453,865,14697,1976,17447,1174,313,14256,17444,4225,2537,12451,426,1256,1252,416,3436,17450,475,316,17452,5384,17446,17451,663,569,17449,17454,314,19,849,391,6821,17445,17448],"class_list":["post-19299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-waterfront","tag-cell-phone-tower-applications","tag-cellular-telephone","tag-doug-ford","tag-federal-minister","tag-first-businessman","tag-ford","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-hearn-generating-station","tag-hines","tag-houston","tag-jim-flaherty","tag-marcus-gee","tag-mayor","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-pdf","tag-pearson","tag-potential-stadium-site","tag-president","tag-queen","tag-real-estate-firms","tag-rogers-centre","tag-rogers-media","tag-salaried-communications","tag-sam-javanrouh","tag-skydome","tag-steve-stavros","tag-tedco","tag-the-globe-and-mail","tag-toronto","tag-transportation","tag-usd","tag-waterfront-real-estate","tag-wt","tag-wts-headquarters"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Let\u2019s Play Ball with the Waterfront (Again)! - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/04\/18\/lorinc-let\u2019s-play-ball-with-the-waterfront-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Let\u2019s Play Ball with the Waterfront (Again)! - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The brothers Ford launched a big boulder in the direction of Waterfront Toronto last week, first denigrating the agency\u2019s efforts as a \u201cboondoggle\u201d and a waste of taxpayers money, and then signaling that its budget is under review. 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