Ontario Place doesn’t deserve outdated ideas
There is a cove-like rocky beach on the south side of Ontario Place with a great view of Etobicoke’s new skyline. It’s just across the water from Hanlan’s Point Beach on Toronto Island and the water is deep and clean, but there’s a sometimes-ignored “No Swimming” sign there. Imagine if that sign was gone and a swimming pier built here allowing people to sun themselves and dive into the water.
Would that be world class? Probably not, but world class is what we might get here as, last week, the Ford government moved to dissolve the board and corporation that runs Ontario Place and transfer control directly to the provincial government.
When Finance Minister Vic Fedeli was asked on CBC Metro Morning last week if a casino was possible, he said “everything’s possible down there” and that his government was going to “look at every single possibility to make that a world-class centre, and I would say nothing is off the table.”
The phrase “world-class” should give everyone pause, as it’s both vague and has a whiff of desperation about it. Recall the monorail episode of The Simpsons, where a fancy train would finally put Springfield on the map. Toronto is already on the map, so there’s no reason for desperation and there is time to be thoughtful and get the evolution of Ontario Place right.
A lot of thought has already been put into it. While the Cinesphere and pods floating high above the lagoon remain architectural gems, much of Ontario Place operations were closed in 2012, as it had become a faded amusement park in need of revitalization and renewed purpose.
Mayor John Tory, then a private citizen, even headed up a minister’s advisory panel on revitalization and hundreds of ideas were suggested. My swimming pier idea is just another added to the list.
There’s no dearth of potential for the place former premier Bill Davis created in 1971 to rival Montreal’s Expo 67 success. Tory’s panel concluded that, among many recommendations, a refreshed Ontario Place could see more commercial enterprises with a mix of shops, artist studios and cafés along with “appropriately sized” residential buildings.
Yet the spectre of gambling was around then as now, and the panel was explicit in stating they did “not believe that a casino should be among the attractions forming the core of the new Ontario Place” and that it should be a place that “celebrates Ontario and its exceptional culture, character and life.” City council also stated its opposition to such a use then and, last week, Tory reiterated his feeling that a casino is not appropriate for the site. And yet it remains “on the table.”
What is it about casinos that are so intoxicating for politicians who purport to be business-minded? Many of the same folks who say business is nimble and innovative, in contrast to government, keep coming back to the same worn- out casino idea. Is there really such a dearth of creativity?
Not at Ontario Place itself, as a number of good things have already happened at the site since it closed. One is it quietly reopened.
When the fabulous Trillium Park opened, the new landscaped park where a parking lot once was on the east side of the site, the gates to the rest of Ontario Place were unlocked and it’s now possible to wander the property and explore the vintage 1971 landscape. Change will certainly come, but for now it’s a magical, quiet place. See it while you can.
Two years ago, the In/Future Festival took place amid the former pavilions and rides of Ontario Place, breathing new life into the site with art and culture for 10 days, proving when given the right attention, it can remain a vital attraction. Similarly, the second year of “Winter at Ontario Place” began this week, luring people out of their winter hibernation with a light festival, outdoor skating and bonfires. Films again regularly play in the Cinesphere, the first permanent IMAX theatre when it opened in 1971.
We shouldn’t be afraid to think big at Ontario Place, but we’ll need to watch it closely now. When Doug Ford was city councillor and his brother mayor, he proposed a Ferris wheel and mega mall for the Port Lands. While a Ferris wheel itself isn’t a terrible idea, the mall was yet another tired cookie cutter money maker and Torontonians rose up, and Ford backed away from the plan.
Should residents need to defend their waterfront again, Toronto knows too well that when Ford decides to play Toronto’s mayor now, he wields incredibly more power as premier than he did when his brother was mayor and he was a councillor.
If there’s a fight to save Ontario Place from bad ideas and bad development, it will be a tough one.