The Ford government plans to move its Place de l’Ontario Parking lot North, according to emails and documents obtained by Global News, and seems to be solicitation sites for the exhibition to build the garage he promised in his agreement with a private spa.
A series of emails and minutes of Reunion accessible by using the laws on freedom of information documents meetings and discussions involving Toronto and Ontario, considering where in the exhibition place a new site could be built.
This would mean that the province abandoned its original plan to build an underground car park directly next to Ontario places as part of its redevelopment of the region to include a private spa, a new place of music and a place of moving in Ontario.
The idea of moving the parking lot to the north was suggested for the first time by the mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, at the end of 2023, while it was trying to allow the government to build it directly on the city’s seafront.
The province agreed at the time, as part of a new larger agreement with the city, to consider moving its garage but seemed to have made no promise.
An e-mail of an official from the Ministry of Infrastructure sent last year, however, suggests that an agreement is already in place.
“The new agreement between the province and the city of Toronto, finalized in November 2023, initiates the province to modify its current planned location for parking on the Ontario Place site and work with the city to establish an alternative parking solution to the exhibition,” said the email.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Infrastructure told Global News that – despite the internal e -mail label – no final decision had been made.
“The province and the city agreed to investigate the possibility of a parking structure at the exhibition but not to a final decision on construction at this place,” said the spokesperson.
As part of its contract with the Private Spa Therme, the Ford government is committed to Build 1,800 parking spaces for therme, as well as other spaces for Live Nation and the Ontario Scientific Center. The Ministry of Infrastructure estimated that it could cost $ 307 million.
At the end of 2023, the city of Toronto and the Ontario government reached a new historic agreement.
Queen’s Park agreed to take control of the Gardiner highway and Don Valley Parkway. He also undertook to pay to manage the LRT Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West, as well as money for new metro cars and to approach homelessness.
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The main Toronto concession was to recognize that it had no control over the land at the Ontario Place water, the mayor actually agreeing to stop the vocal opposition to the vision of the redevelopment of the Ford government.
The agreement included another clause: that Toronto and Ontario would set up a technical table to examine whether a plan to build a parking lot in Ontario Place could be moved to the north until the exhibition.
According to one of the internal emails seen by Global News, the agreement “also initiates the province to modify its location provided for parking” and to determine how to move it to the exposure.
This new parking lot could be built above the ground.
Prime Minister Doug Ford himself referred to the exposure option and said the province did not want to build Underground.
“I don’t think we are going to spend a fortune in an underground garage,” he said in December 2024. “We just don’t need it.”
Internal documents show that the Ministry of Infrastructure began to consider areas specific to the exhibition to build its parking lot.
A few minutes from a meeting on May 23, 2024, show that the province requested a full list of all the places where it could build a parking garage on -ground – or underground – at the exhibition.
“IO asked that Expace is coming back with a card that is marked with sites that they could put above quality / level parking spaces at the level,” said a line.
The same meeting said that infrastructure in Ontario could consider a “creative solution through the site”.
Among the locations considered for parking by Toronto and Ontario officials, there was an area next to the Ovo Athletic Center.
“Two sites at the northwest corner of the land are identified as potential opportunity areas, which are appropriate locations for future buildings or structures, and may include parking facilities above grade where displaced parking spaces or staging zones can be moved,” wrote Toronto employee in an email.
A spokesperson for the province said that the Ford government should also decide whether or not the parking is over the ground.
“No decision was made on the location or on the above options in the field,” they told Global News.
The other sites that have been weighed include the area directly south of the BMO field, and the redevelopment potential for the best living center by falling and digging underground parking below.
Don Boyle, the CEO of the Place exhibition, suggested that his organization hoped that the province would build a parking lot that would make the “better” on the ground.
“In the end, Exhibition Place strives to ensure that any parking solution in our 192 acres land to serve Ontario Place, the exhibition site and the local district, be planned to integrate the highest and best uses of our land so that we can continue to host existing and future events of important companies to companies and public interest.”
A card sent by a Toronto staff member identifying a potential area for an above -ground parking.
Global News
World Cup delays and CNE complaints
The sites weighed on the exhibition site are also linked to potential major problems.
The lease between therme and Ontario links the Ford government to have a parking solution with 1,800 places ready to open the SPA in 2028 – or a penalty of $ 5 per space per day.
The exhibition center, however, will be used for the FIFA 2026 World Cup throughout this summer, while the World Football Tournament descends to the city. Consequently, any parking lot should be built over about a year to avoid penalties for late delivery.
A few minutes from a meeting between Toronto, the exhibition site and the province on March 21, 2024, confirmed that the exhibition site – including its parking lots and the best life center – would be “linked” until “end of 2026 due to FIFA requirements”.
The land directly south of BMO Field, which could accommodate a parking structure, for example, will act like the FIFA village during the World Cup, which makes construction impossible until the event has ended.
The use of land at the exhibition would also have an impact on the Canadian national exhibition, which transforms the region into a massive external event each summer.
Darrell Brown, then CNE-CEO, wrote to officials of the city of Toronto several times in 2024 to complain about the plan.
“To say that this is a problem is a great swupism,” he said in a message. In another, he declared that an exaggerated parking lot at the exhibition was “a defective concept that would not adequately meet the needs of therme and certainly will not serve ours”.
In a message to the local country. Ausma Malik, Brown said that the CNE could make its complaints public.
“We are ready to set up a public campaign opposing any redevelopment of surface parking on the site,” he wrote.
“I understand that the members of the committee responsible for developing a parking plan have all been invited to sign the NDAS – wonderful transparency.
Brown is no longer the CEO of the CNE, which currently has an interim leader.
A spokesperson for the organization said that “any previous statement made by Darrell Brown would be a false statement in the name of the Canadian national exhibition, because Mr. Brown is no longer associated with the organization.”
The spokesperson did not say if the new CNE position was favorable to an above-ground parking at the exhibition.
“We continue to remain engaged and closely monitor Ontario’s development plans with regard to the Canadian National Exhibition,” they wrote in an email.