{"id":63127,"date":"2021-01-20T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=63127"},"modified":"2021-01-20T09:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T14:07:49","slug":"lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There could have scarcely been a more succinct visual metaphor for the chronically dysfunctional relationship between City Hall and Queen\u2019s Park than the sight, this week, of that big yellow backhoe munching on the side of the soon-to-be-former West Donlands foundries on Eastern Avenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, the vast majority of Torontonians who don\u2019t live in or near Corktown probably had no clue about the existence of this historic industrial complex, much less its suddenly incendiary role in intergovernmental relations hereabouts. Today, those foundries are a flashpoint, their mindless destruction offering up more evidence of one government running roughshod over another.<\/p>\n

Many ironies are baked into this tale, but the most glaring one, to my eye, is the fact that this area has become a viable and attractive location for developers partly because of the continued existence of another set of heritage industrial buildings that everyone\u2019s heard of: the Distillery District.<\/p>\n

I used the word ‘partly\u2019 because there are an abundance of nuances. The West Donlands is also a destination for development because of provincial investments in remediation that extend from Bob Rae\u2019s days as premier to the PanAm games in 2015. Also, this area deserves to be intensified because it will eventually be served by a nearby GO stop and an Ontario Line station, not to mention two existing streetcar routes, etc.<\/p>\n

Should the province, which has owned the foundries for decades, have attached facadism-type heritage riders to the site that would produce the kind of building that has risen about the old Loblaw\u2019s warehouse at Lakeshore and Bathurst? Probably.<\/p>\n

Does Queen\u2019s Park, and the Tories\u2019 trigger-happy municipal affairs czar Steve Clark, need to exercise more restraint before reaching for ministerial zoning orders (MZOs) \u2014 the heat-seeking missile of Ontario\u2019s planning powers \u2014 to expedite development?<\/p>\n

This is a trickier question to answer. I wasn\u2019t upset in the least when the province used MZOs to fast-track a pair of emergency modular supportive housing projects last year to quell the mewling of Chicken Little ratepayer groups. But in the case of the West Donlands, are MZOs the right tool from a planning perspective, or simply more evidence of cronyism and a maximalist mindset at the cabinet table?<\/p>\n

The answer will depend on your political perspective, but I think it\u2019s difficult to dispute the more general point, which is that the confrontation reveals just what a crummy relationship the city and the province have these days, notwithstanding the mayor\u2019s kowtowing rhetoric. The friction list is long: pandemic response, size of council, conservation policy, heritage policy, carbon policy, transit investment, etc.<\/p>\n

But it’s also fair to say that since amalgamation in 1998, this intergovernmental relationship has been mainly poor, interrupted by a fleeting periods of d\u00e9tente or like-mindedness. Falls Road in Belfast before the Easter Accord. An old married couple too dug in to divorce. The Hatfields and the McCoys. Pick your meme.<\/p>\n

At times, the province is lording it over the City. In other moments \u2013 the early days of Rob Ford\u2019s mayoralty come to mind \u2013 the City is in the, um, driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

Nor is it entirely accurate to characterize the relationship as victimizer-victim, even though one of the enduring myths of Toronto politics is that Queen\u2019s Park is always sticking it to local residents one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the City can give as good as it gets. When Doug Ford\u2019s preening, pre-pandemic government decided to throw a legislative spammer into the 2018 municipal election, I doubt his lawyers expected to be prepping for a hearing date at the Supreme Court of Canada, asked to account for whether the Tories\u2019 high-handed move to slash council mid-campaign amounted to an infringement of the Charter\u2019s freedom of expression guarantees. To date, six judges \u2013 one lower court, five higher court \u2013 have weighed in on this matter. Three said no, three \u2013 including two of the most highly regarded jurists in Canada \u2013 said yes.<\/p>\n

There was, it should be said, a brief period when both parties sought to formalize and normalize the relationship \u2013 between 2006 and 2009, when then mayor David Miller and then premier Dalton McGuinty negotiated the City of Toronto Act, which is, effectively, a charter. The political allegiances frayed when McGuinty\u2019s Liberals reneged on transit promises, but the law remains on the books.<\/p>\n

I re-read COTA after the Tories slashed council. What was clear is that in some important ways, the document is a political truce dressed up as a law, and therefore just as susceptible to regime change as anything else banged out between these two bickering institutions. In any event, the province can always amend a provincial law, which speaks to the paradox that confronts all dreams of municipal autonomy (including the recurring fantasy of constitutional amendments).<\/p>\n

The other significant problem with COTA is that it\u2019s not a living political document; it is simply a static set of rules. By contrast, the Queen\u2019s Park-City Hall relationship is surely one of the most dynamic anywhere in Canada. The political participants change constantly, the issues can evolve very rapidly or not at all. Views about city-building generally, and the role of Toronto in particular, fluctuate wildly. Voters make ambiguous choices. Markets change. Disasters happen.<\/p>\n

While alignment is unattainable for all the obvious reasons, I\u2019d say it should be possible <\/em>for the two sides to develop and regularly update a framework — e.g., a memo of understanding — for interaction, as well as lists itemizing points of consensus, areas of policy disagreement and some mechanism for resolving disputes.\u00a0The occasion to renew or renegotiate such a framework could be after elections, for instance, as the City of Toronto and provincial elections coincide.<\/p>\n

I realize, of course, that such an approach requires two willing counterparties, and at least some commitment to negotiating in good faith. What\u2019s more, we all have to acknowledge that it\u2019s impossible to anticipate or resolve all sources of friction, and also that political power will be exercised.<\/p>\n

Na\u00efve? Perhaps. But if there\u2019s one conclusion that almost everyone would agree on, it is that the endless intramural fighting is ridiculous, expensive, and unproductive. Our society is filled with examples of how rival entities devise approaches that encourage negotiation and address points of disagreement.<\/p>\n

Surely the public institutions hunkered down in their respective redoubts at either end of University Avenue can figure out how to do the same.<\/p>\n

photo courtesy of Friends of the Foundry (cc)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There could have scarcely been a more succinct visual metaphor for the chronically dysfunctional relationship between City Hall and Queen\u2019s Park than the sight, this week, of that big yellow backhoe munching on the side of the soon-to-be-former West Donlands foundries on Eastern Avenue. A few days ago, the vast majority of Torontonians who don\u2019tContinue reading “LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":63136,"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":[22,18,2,32,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-neighbourhoods","category-politics","category-streetscape","category-urban-design"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - 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\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There could have scarcely been a more succinct visual metaphor for the chronically dysfunctional relationship between City Hall and Queen\u2019s Park than the sight, this week, of that big yellow backhoe munching on the side of the soon-to-be-former West Donlands foundries on Eastern Avenue. A few days ago, the vast majority of Torontonians who don\u2019tContinue reading "LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-20T13:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-20T14:07:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/\",\"name\":\"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-20T13:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-20T14:07:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\",\"name\":\"John Lorinc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Lorinc\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"There could have scarcely been a more succinct visual metaphor for the chronically dysfunctional relationship between City Hall and Queen\u2019s Park than the sight, this week, of that big yellow backhoe munching on the side of the soon-to-be-former West Donlands foundries on Eastern Avenue. A few days ago, the vast majority of Torontonians who don\u2019tContinue reading \"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2021-01-20T13:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-20T14:07:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Lorinc","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Lorinc","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/","name":"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen's Park and City Hall - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-20T13:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-20T14:07:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/139904721_107218544682384_1130342398946052191_n.jpg","width":960,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/20\/lorinc-the-never-ending-war-between-queens-park-and-city-hall\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LORINC: The never-ending war between Queen’s Park and City Hall"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e","name":"John Lorinc","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"John Lorinc"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63127"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63138,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63127\/revisions\/63138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}