A new OPP detachment will be built at Ontario Place
It will include a helicopter pad and a mounted unit, in addition to a proposed marine unit
Premier Doug Ford’s exorbitant vision for Ontario Place includes an Ontario Provincial Police detachment, complete with a helicopter pad and possible marine unit, in addition to a mounted unit, with horses to patrol the grounds.
Related: Now Doug Ford wants to spend “a few billion dollars” overhauling the Metro Toronto Convention Centre
The provincial government announced today that it has begun the search for a company to build the detachment, alongside the controversial Therme mega-spa and relocated Ontario Science Centre, and potentially a new convention centre, which Ford has said he wants to overhaul and relocate from its long-time downtown location.
“This detachment will support year-round policing at the new Ontario Place as well as traffic patrol on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway once the roadways are designated as King’s Highways and uploaded to the province,” the release said. (A specific timeline of when the OPP will take over the Toronto highways was not provided.)
The province’s media release noted that Toronto police officers will continue to handle non-traffic patrol-related functions.
Related: After record snowfall didn’t destroy the Science Centre, some question whether it needed to close
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
