Why does Doug Ford want to fill in part of Lake Ontario?
Oh, to build a new convention centre. Makes sense!
Not long after releasing the architectural renderings of the new $1.04-billion Ontario Science Centre expected to open in 2029, Premier Doug Ford began mood-boarding another major project: an overhauled Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The premier said construction would likely cost “a few billion dollars.”
Our current convention centre, which has been located downtown since 1984, is “one of the worst convention centres anywhere in the world,” Ford said, and is causing Toronto to lose business to facilities in other cities.
Related: Could another member of the Ford family become Toronto’s next mayor?
Unsurprisingly, the possible multibillion-dollar structure Ford imagines would be built in the vicinity of Ontario Place, where the new Science Centre and controversial Therme spa are set to open in three years. But where, exactly? Well, Ford said today that one possibility is filling in part of Lake Ontario to make room for it.
“I wouldn’t call it an island, but we may look at putting fill in until we can put a convention centre,” Ford said today, as reported by CP24. “We’re losing out on so many large conventions in the world, because we just don’t have the size.”
Ford emphasized that his goal is to bring business to Toronto. “We need a world class convention centre to attract more tourists, more jobs, and that’s what this is all about,” he said.
NDP leader Marit Stiles is among the critics of Ford’s convention centre vision. “That’s something nobody has been asking for,” she said last week. “And suddenly, that’s his latest idea. This is all an attempt to distract from the state of things in Ontario.”
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.
