Toronto residents fight for changes to plan to build Ontario Line station on historic downtown site

Downtown Toronto community groups are fighting to reinstate plans for a library and a park that are 20 years in the making at the historic First Parliament Site — all threatened when the province swiftly expropriated the city-owned land in August. 

The provincial agency in charge of regional transit in Greater Toronto, Metrolinx, will use the full block at Front Street East and Parliament Street for a subway station and has suggested the rest be developed into condo towers. As the property's owner, it now has full control over the site where the province's first legislature stood, and how it is used. 

Its proposal is "aggressive" and would "obliterate" the city and community's vision for much-needed public space, including an interpretive centre to recognize its cultural and historical significance, Cynthia Wilkey, West Don Lands Committee co-chair, told Mayor John Tory's executive committee Wednesday.

She's among the residents who've joined city staff in negotiations with the province in hopes of finding a compromise. 

"We saw this proposal as entirely inconsistent with the city's intention to create a civic and commemorative entity," Wilkey said. "The response from our community has run the gamut of shock, anger, outrage, concern, investigation, analysis and finally proposition and some measure of optimism." 

She said so far in negotiations with the province, residents and city staff made progress in reducing the proposed density by about 20 per cent to make more room for green space.

Historically significant land 

The First Parliament Site is on land that was home to Indigenous communities for thousands of years, the city says. It was also where European settlers traded furs and where Upper Canada's parliament buildings were located until 1824. The site was then used as a jail and later for gas manufacturing.

Today it's a car dealership, car wash and parking lot.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said in a statement that the site was selected because it will connect the King streetcar line with the Ontario Line, a 15-stop rapid transit route that is slated to connect Ontario Place and the Canadian National Exhibition grounds to the Ontario Science Centre at Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road. 

She said the site is underused compared to its surroundings in Corktown.

"By using this site we're able to minimize impacts to nearby businesses, homes and green spaces," she said. 

Metrolinx will continue to collaborate with the community on how to develop the site after the station is constructed, using the city's plans as a "starting point," said Aikins. 

City offered exclusive access instead

The province's decision to expropriate the land came as a complete surprise to city officials, CBC News reported in January.

It was also unnecessary, Kristyn Wong-Tam, the city councillor who represents the area, told the mayor's executive committee.

"We tried to explain to the province that we can give them exclusive access to do their construction and staging for the subway, for the Ontario Line, and they didn't necessarily need to take ownership and control of the lands," she said. 

"That offer has been on the table from day one, so it's not that they had to take the lands. They want to take the lands. So we are in an incredible situation where we don't have a lot of powers and the province has absolute power." 

People in the West Don Lands aren't the only Toronto residents battling Metrolinx over its handling of the Ontario Line

The Leslieville and Riverside communities are demanding a section of the line be buried rather than run above ground. Thorncliffe Park residents are waging a fierce fight against the plans for a giant rail yard that they say would eat up valuable land and destroy small businesses. And demonstrators took to Queen's Park this month demanding more input into Ontario's transit projects.

Development to take place over next decade

With the First Parliament Site, city staff are attempting to influence Metrolinx's decisions on the final development, James Perttula, Toronto's director of transit planning, told the executive committee.

Earlier this month, council passed its master plan for the site, which outlines its original vision. On Wednesday, the committee voted to hold the money it receives from the province through the expropriation process in a trust until plans are finalized.

Community groups are pushing for the funds to be used to build the library, park and interpretive centre once the station is complete within the next decade. Diana Belshaw, vice-president of the Gooderham and Worts Neighbourhood Association, implored councillors to stand firm.

"We ask you to empower city staff to negotiate on our behalf to return as much of the land as possible for civic use," Belshaw said.