The Don Valley has wealthy friends
Donors have chipped in $3.4M toward makeover of parkland
A handful of wealthy donors are helping transform the sprawling Don River ravine into more inviting and accessible parkland.
Mayor John Tory and Evergreen, the charity that turned a former brick factory into an environmental and educational centre, revealed Tuesday that $3.4 million has been raised toward an initial $5-million goal.
Improvements have included new entry points to the ravine, widened trails, the Belleville underpass, Pottery Rd. bridge, Bayview multi-use trail and art installations. Next spring, the city will add “way-finding signage” to help people navigate the valley.
Evergreen says $2.5 million has gone directly to the city while it will use the remainder to maintain and restore natural habitats and fund art and culture projects and public engagement.
The donors include Frances and Tim Price, Andy Chisholm and Laurie Thomson, the Jackman family, Judy and Wilmot Matthews, Kelly and Sen. Michael Meighen and Trans Canada Trails.
Tory’s office said the city has, since 2012, spent $18 million to help turn the Lower Don Trail into “a signature parkland at the centre of the city stretching from Corktown Common to Pottery Road.”
Parks staff will soon ask city council to consider making the ravine an official City of Toronto park. That would mean an increase in annual maintenance costs, Tory acknowledged, while saying the city needs to make investments in public spaces.
He hailed wealthy Torontonians opening their wallets to improve city initiatives, or make them possible. He gathered about a dozen philanthropists in his office recently to urge them to help fund such projects.
“I think it’s going to be one of many meetings we’ll have and I hope it will lead to a lot of these kinds of donations,” including for the proposed rail deck park over the downtown train corridor, estimated to cost more than $1 billion, he said.
Judy and Wilmot Matthews’ donation for the Don Valley project comes on top of $25 million they pledged for the Bentway, a revitalization of the drab grey space under the Gardi- ner Expressway.
In an interview, Councillor Gord Perks criticized reliance on private individuals and corporations to fund city initiatives including parks.
“I don’t understand why, in a democratic society, wealthy people get an extra vote about what we build in the city of Toronto,” he said, noting donors get a deduction on their income taxes.
“We elect governments to decide what our priorities are and it undermines the role of government when wealthy people decide instead.”