Waterfront Toronto asks for more money, is forced to talk about pink umbrellas instead
This is how Toronto’s news cycle works sometimes: Waterfront Toronto makes the case for continued investment in the city’s shoreline one day, and the next day it’s embroiled in a mini-scandal about pink umbrellas.
The umbrellas in question are the ones at Sugar Beach, near the foot of Jarvis Street. They’re sturdy, sculpted umbrellas that are meant to last decades. Almost nobody had given their presence on the beach a second thought until Ward 34 councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong came forward this week with evidence that each of them cost Waterfront Toronto $11,565 to buy and install. The headlines pretty much wrote themselves.
That’s a lot to spend on an umbrella, but, as Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell pointed out to the Star, it’s not necessarily a tremendous amount to spend on a piece of usable sculpture in a public park. More important for people like Minnan-Wong, a longtime critic of Waterfront Toronto, is the fact that the comic disparity between “$12,000” and “umbrella” neatly sidelines (at least, for the time being) Waterfront Toronto’s new hobbyhorse, which is figuring out what to do about the fact that it’s running out of money.
A report set to go before city council’s executive committee next week says Waterfront Toronto will have spent most of its original $1.5 billion in funding by 2017. The agency, which claims to have generated $2.6 billion in waterfront investment, is asking for $1.65 billion in new funding from a variety of government and private sources. It also wants the ability to issue its own debt, which is probably the scariest part of the conversation for conservatives like Minnan-Wong.
And yet, without that new funding, city-changing projects like the East Bayfront LRT and the Port Lands revitalization could continue to languish for lack of leadership. And that would be an actual scandal.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/waterfront-toronto-asks-money-forced-talk-pink-umbrellas-instead/&title=Waterfront Toronto asks for more money, is forced to talk about pink umbrellas instead&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/sugar-beach-umbrellas-624x395.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_280430" align="alignnone" width="656"] (Image: mark.watmough)[/caption]
This is how Toronto's news cycle works sometimes: Waterfront Toronto makes the case for continued investment in the city's shoreline one day, and the next day it's embroiled in a mini-scandal about pink umbrellas.
The umbrellas in question are the ones at Sugar Beach, near the foot of Jarvis Street. They're sturdy, sculpted umbrellas that are meant to last decades. Almost nobody had given their presence on the beach a second thought until Ward 34 councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong came forward this week with evidence that each of them cost Waterfront Toronto $11,565 to buy and install. The headlines pretty much wrote themselves.
That's a lot to spend on an umbrella, but, as Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell pointed out to the Star, it's not necessarily a tremendous amount to spend on a piece of usable sculpture in a public park. More important for people like Minnan-Wong, a longtime critic of Waterfront Toronto, is the fact that the comic disparity between "$12,000” and "umbrella" neatly sidelines (at least, for the time being) Waterfront Toronto's new hobbyhorse, which is figuring out what to do about the fact that it's running out of money.
A report set to go before city council's executive committee next week says Waterfront Toronto will have spent most of its original $1.5 billion in funding by 2017. The agency, which claims to have generated $2.6 billion in waterfront investment, is asking for $1.65 billion in new funding from a variety of government and private sources. It also wants the ability to issue its own debt, which is probably the scariest part of the conversation for conservatives like Minnan-Wong.
And yet, without that new funding, city-changing projects like the East Bayfront LRT and the Port Lands revitalization could continue to languish for lack of leadership. And that would be an actual scandal.){kind=link}
I can only count 20 umbrellas in the photo above, that’s a quarter of a million dollars, ouch. To pay that much for a sculpture is still questionable but that would be for ONE sculpture not 20. Thank you for bringing this to light Mr. Minnan-Wong but also…
You got to love the top execs, they say they have had a pay freeze for 5 years… frozen at over 300,000 a year each, (aw’). It’s not a mystery to see where the money is going or that these people are in the business of lining their own pockets. Fire them now Toronto, please.
You’re suggesting what? There should be only one umbrella?
And which executives are you talking about? Certainly not those in the private sector, who wouldn’t cross a road for a paltry 300k. The last few decades have seen an unprecedented transfer of wealth, TO the richest on the planet, FROM…everybody else. The financial sector – banks, et al – now sucks up 7.5% of GDP where 50 years ago it represented 3%…and what do we get for this 150% increase? Nada. You’re looking for the wrong pirates, friend.
Denzil Minnan-Wong – a name so many in Toronto wishes they would never hear of or read of for the rest of our lives. Not a happy man is he!
I’m suggesting $12,000 for one umbrella means it’s a waste of money, a foolish purchase, a waste of money, not acceptable etc. I counted 20 in the photo but there are 36 in total, $12,000 each, that’s disgusting.
I’m talking about the execs in charge of this operation crying about a pay freeze. They should be fired for misappropriation of funds, having no over all plan and accomplishing so little in a decade. Toronto can do it for a lot less.
Understandable but in this case he is right to bring this to the public ear and not be happy about it. We could have built 2 new subways for the cost of what these 69 waterfront execs are squandering away.
The operative phrase, as read, “…. meant to last decades…”
That’s a good insertion, plausibly meant to deflect criticism of a wildly out of range cost.
Come, now. Is that what a durable beach umbrella costs?
No. A price of one-thousand per would seem more reliably responsible.
And, where is it made? No doubt, some purchaser didn’t read the label, nor considered the manufacturing process that would employ Canadians, IF, these wildly expensive umbrellas were made in… a ha, china. And that’s with a lower case ‘c’, and applicable as much to the purchaser, a ‘c’anadian official.
Ontario’s manufacturing sector has been hollowed out. By who? Ask about the lower case ‘c’ who did it, and ask a lower case ‘c’, many in fact, who let it happen.
It’s reasonable to ask the cost, now that it’s been ‘outed’, and who’s asking should be commended for displaying responsible representation.
And, yes, if curiosity has risen, DrivingDetroit is also a Canadian.
Stupidity reigns. Why not have permanent umbrella holders only and then people can choose to bring their own or people can rent an umbrella for half a day or full. Would make more sense.