A group of concerned citizens formed the West Don Lands Committee in the late 1990s to help guide and provide community perspectives to planners trying to decide what to do with an area that was, at the time, an industrial wasteland in the Don River’s flood zone. Over the next 20 years the WDLC worked closely with Waterfront Toronto, City Planners, the Province of Ontario and developers in creating the beautiful and vibrant place it is today. 

In January 2021 residents suddenly learned they could not take the neighbourhood for granted, when demolition equipment moved onto the site of the historic Dominion Foundry buildings and began to break down the historic buildings. The West Don Lands Committee played a crucial role in helping community members stop the demolition and ensure the buildings would be protected in future. 

In 2024, the WDLC acknowledged completion of their mission. At a celebration held on June 8, 2024 in Corktown Common, Co-Chair Cindy Wilkey had this to say:

Thank you to Michael Milward and Danielle Migwans from AHT for that warm welcome and to the earlier speakers for all of the kind words from the speakers

The time is right for the WDLC, a coalition that has worked together for 25 years, to declare success and acknowledge completion of the mission we set for ourselves in 1997.

We have travelled a long way together - some of us for the full 25 years. I will miss that collaboration – but also enjoy the time to savour the success and share the pride of accomplishment

Together we dreamed of a new life for these lands – together we helped to make it happen.

I am going to ask you to close your eyes Imagine what this place looked like in 1997 –

  • Flat, derelict, littered with the remnants of abandoned factories, warehouses and rail lines
  • the result of 150 years of infill and industrial activity that transformed a marshy river mouth and seasonal hunting and fishing ground
    • first into the economic engine of Ontario’s early days.
    • And then into a post-industrial, flood prone brownfield.

Now look around you and marvel at the transformation. This development is literally the dream come true for the organizations who made up the WDLC.

  • Where no one was living, there will be over 7000 new homes, nearly 20% of which are desperately needed affordable rental
  • A beautiful public realm, this stunning park with an accessible connection to the Lower Don trail, a YMCA, a GB student residence that includes the Lucie and Thornton Blackburn Conference Centre, excellent public transit
  • and coming soon:
    • Anishnawbe Health Toronto’s Health Centre and Indigenous Hub
    • Rekai Long Term Care – I see Sue Graham-Nutter here today
    • And, eventually, an elementary school
  • A truly model community

Keeping all of this in mind, I ask you to take a moment to think about how wrong headed it would have been if the government of the day had actually taken the short-sighted step of selling this land to a harness racing consortium

  • the misstep that it was about to make in 1997
  • the step that jolted 17 community-based organizations to form the WDLC and advocate for a better solution.

This should be an important lesson for all time, but particularly now. Public land is an irreplaceable resource that must be used to generate long term value – not short-term revenue needs. The West Don Lands story is a proof of concept – of what wise and prudent management of public resources looks like.

Most of you know the story of the WDLC and the revitalization of the WDL very well, so what I want to do is use elements of that process to recognize some of the people who were key allies in the way.

In the beginning – 1997 – 17 community-based organizations came together quickly in opposition to the racetrack idea. With help and encouragement from many corners, we quickly moved from opposition to proposition

The WDLC has been a coalition of organizations. Over two and a half decades, an extraordinary group of city builders have come from those organizations to. I would like to recognize a few:

We have had 5 Chairs:

  • Radford Cook from Corktown was the founding Chair
  • Followed by Babak Abbaszadeh – who sends regrets from Rwanda and a message that is on the gift table.
  • Larry Webb, John Wilson and I were the final three Chairs and Co-Chairs

Corktown CRBA and St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association SLNA were the instigating associations.

  • For Corktown Larry Webb and Ole Calderone have been active over the long haul – Cory Lemos is the current President
  • For SLNA – Suzanne Kavanagh deserves special recognition + Robert Sherrin the long serving official delegate. I also see Edward Nixon, the first SLNA representative

Rollo Myers from Citizens for the Old Town was a charter member of the WDLC, who schooled us in all things heritage

The Gooderham & Worts Neighbourhood Association (GWNA) has consistently been the most active member of the WDLC. Julie Beddoes was a member before her condo was even completed and given countless deputation, written a multitude of letters and spent an unimaginable amount of time in meetings on behalf of the WDLC. In 2015 Julie and I shared the Jane Jacobs prize for a vast level of joint advocacy over many years. I also want to single out George Hume and Lester Brown – long standing volunteers, remember Jane Robinson, who is sorely missed and recognize Diana Belshaw, Neil Betteridge, Alison Burns, newer leaders with GWNA

Helene St. Jacques is another charter member and has served in many incarnations, most recently on behalf of the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Foundation.

Other key volunteers include:

  • David Jackson – Distillery Historic District -which is also contributing the BBQ to this event
  • George Milbrandt from the newly renamed Old Town Toronto BIA who has added a solid and sober business perspective.
  • Adam Cohoon for Little Trinity Church /Friends of Corktown Common
  • Joanne Milward and the late Trish Waldron also for Little Trinity Church
  • Harris Blentic, Diana Mavunduse and other staff members from Dixon Hall of the years

WDLC gets a lot of well-deserved and well appreciated credit, but the truth is that we had many stars align to bring about this result and it is gratifying to see some of those star makers are here today

Lance Alexander, not here but a critical early supporter, was an optimistic and creative city planner who mentored us in understanding development issues facing the WDL and connected us with key experts and allies. Since then, we have had the solid support and assistance of many city planners and the all-important Waterfront Secretariat headed by Davide Stonehouse.

David Crombie’s Waterfront Regeneration Trust produced a transformative study in 1995 that analyzed the WDL in light of innovative thinking about environmental management and flood protection. The staff of the Trust were generous in helping us to understand these issues.

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority staff were also extremely generous with their time and included our members in briefings and advisory committees. In particular I would think Brian Denney, Adele Freeman and Ken Dionne who has continued his work on the Don River at Waterfront Toronto

The 2008 Olympic Bid was one of the first big stars that aligned for us. When the WDL was identified as a potential Athlete’s Village, the province took the WDL off the market and we began to collaborate with the Bid folks.

In 1999 we planned and hosted Obstacles and Opportunities, the 3-day West Don Lands Workshop that built a broad consensus around the path forward for revitalization of the WDL. Key WDLC planners included Babak Abbazsadeh, Rollo Myers, Helene St. Jacques and Mary Neuman, a freelance planner who was hired to coordinate the workshop.

The next star aligned for us when, in the week before our workshop, the three amigos, Jean Chretien, Mike Harris and Mel Lastman, announced the creation of the Bob Fung Task force on the waterfront, which ultimately led to the creation of Waterfront Toronto. Bob Fung attended the final day of our workshop.

We presented the detailed background work results of our workshop to his taskforce. And the rest is history…. When Waterfront Toronto was launched with $1.5 billion in seed money, flood protection of the mouth of the Don River and revitalization of the WDL were identified as two of four priority projects

Waterfront Toronto’s extraordinary accomplishments and commitment to excellence was the next star that aligned. All around you is the result of the careful and collaborative precinct planning process led by Waterfront Toronto. The debt owed to Waterfront Toronto is indescribable. It has been a privilege to work with:

  • Chairs, Bob Fung, Mark Wilson
  • CEO John Campbell and now George Zegarac
  • Meg Davis, Chief Development Officer, has been a constant supporter of the WDLC, defender of the values inherent in the precinct plan and a kind of soulmate as we worked through many years of challenges.
  • Chris Glaisek who leads the focus on design excellence
  • Maris Piattelli – how acutely we feel her loss and miss her counsel and advice
  • Josh Hilbert – Rene Gomes – Derek Goring – Carol Webb – Mira Shenker - too many to name - but so many have contributed
  • Kristin Jenkins – from the early days - now with the Ontario Line constructors – so back with this community

Special mention two people who were retained by Waterfront Toronto in the very early days and have continued to work closely with the WDLC:

  • Nicole Swerhun whose founded Third Party facilitation. She is the world’s best facilitator IMHO and has had a hand in consultations almost all things waterfront. She was also key to the establishment of the WT signature community consultation design.
  • Joe Lobko – the highly respected and much-loved architect who was the Toronto anchor for the WDL precinct planning team and went on the work during the 2015 PanAm Games build out to ensure that the WDL Precinct Plan principles prevailed

Delivering significant levels of affordable housing was a priority of the WDLC from the very beginning. Sean Gadon from the City of Toronto Affordable Housing office was the architect of affordable rental housing model within the WDL, including the RFP process to identify affordable housing operators. We owe him a huge debt for the results here, which can serve as a model for elsewhere in the City.

Corktown Common – this beautiful park. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates, who are also designing the new mouth of the Don River, assisted by Urban Strategies. A special mention for Leslie Coates, from City Parks, who advocated for a dedicated budget and creation of an organic maintenance manual to ensure the beauty of the park could be maintained.

Of course, none of this would exist without the developers who took the award-winning plans and made them a reality. The first was David Wex, developer of River City, who had the bad luck of winning the RFP just as a global financial meltdown made moving forward look impossible.

But move forward he did, aided by the momentum created by the 2015 PanAm/Para PanAm Games Athletes’ Village project. That development brought Dream/Kilmer and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with the likes of Ken Tanenbaum, Jason Lester, Michelle Ackerman and Tony Medeiros in the development of the Canary district and the later mixed market rental developments underway

Most recently, WDLC members were actively involved in the fight to save the Dominion Foundry buildings. When the province started demolition on the first day of the provincial COVID lockdown, it was then Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam who jumped into hyperdrive to get the City engaged and to work with local residents to save the buildings.

In addition to Kristyn, I want to mention Franca Leeson, who with the small working group was at the heart of the Save the Foundry and Respect for Local planning group. The same Franca who has now been the driving force behind the newly created Canary District Neighbourhood Association. Other crucial volunteers in that effort were the alternative design dream team led by Ken Greenberg and Shirley Blumberg as well as communications expert named Linda Weichel.

Throughout the long life of the WDLC, we have benefited from strong political support. Pam McConnell, missed in so many ways, was with us through thick and thin – assisted by Tom Davidson, who has wisely been tapped by former Councillor Joe Cressy and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik to continue his work. Tom is the custodian of the institutional memory at the City of the history of the WDL and the central waterfront redevelopment. Tom may have to stay forever.

In the lead up the PanAm/ParaPan/Am games, MP George Smitherman worked to ensure that the plan to put the Athletes’ Village in the WDL would build on the WDL Precinct Plan and incorporate a significant amount of affordable rental housing.

I’ll also make a special mention of the quiet, behind the scenes, work of Infrastructure Minister David Kaplan and Andy Stein in his office managed to head off a confrontation between the City and the Federal government that threatened the existence of Waterfront Toronto.

That support continues through our City Councillors, Ausma Malik and Chris Moise and through MPP’s Chris Glover and Kristyn Wong Tam and MP Marci Ien.

I will end my list here – although there are many, many others who deserve a mention and thanks the last person I will mention is my Co-Chair, John Wilson. For the better part of a decade, we have worked together, and I could not ask for a better, smarter, more hard working and committed collaborator. I have learned a lot from John, including quite a bit about birding, and I know I will miss working together.

In closing, to quote Winston Churchill:

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning. “

The beginning was the work of the West Don Lands Committee and its many allies. The next phase of stewardship passes, as it should, to the people who now live in and around this wonderful place.

The newly minted Canary District Neighbourhood Association, the East Waterfront Community Association – the founding President David Chan is here - and the established Gooderham and Worts neighbourhood association.

Thank you all.

 

 

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