What's happening to Toronto's commemorative plaques? 18 missing from midtown

City staff are trying to unravel the mystery of the missing hardware.

At least 18 bronze commemorative plaques — worth thousands of dollars each — have vanished from bridges and parks in the midtown core, according to a count by CBC Toronto.

Staff are reluctant to speculate about what may have happened to them.

But Coun. Josh Matlow says it's clear: "A bronze plaque was ripped off a bridge. That looks like theft to me." 

City plaques vary in size, weight and composition. The most common commemorative bridge plaques, according to numbers provided by the city, are 300 mm by 450 mm by 10 mm thick.

They're set into either end of the bridge with adhesive and brass bolts. The plaques bear the City of Toronto logo, along with the date the bridge was built, followed by the year in which it was refurbished.

Various city departments, as well as the provincial and federal governments, have mounted commemorative plaques around the city over the years. But it's impossible to know how many exist, or have been removed, history experts say, because no one agency is assigned to keep track of, or maintain, the plaques. 

"There are thousands of commemorative plaques across the City of Toronto," said Adam Wynne, chair of the Toronto and East York community preservation panel. 

"A total number, I don't think anyone has."

Heritage Toronto is the major source of commemorative plaques in the city, according to the agency's plaques manager, Chris Bateman.

He agrees there's no formal mechanism in place to keep track of them. 

"We rely on people to tell us they're missing," he said.

Bateman said Heritage Toronto has placed about 900 plaques city-wide, and installs about 30 new ones each year. The plaques can cost as much as $8,000 each. While he wouldn't say what the plaques are made of, a city web page says commemorative plaques are usually bronze.

Every year, Bateman said, he loses "a handful" of plaques, but he's noticed no uptick in thefts.

"Some will go missing," he said. "That's part of doing business when you're working within a public place."

Almost all of the 18 missing plaques identified by CBC Toronto were mounted on bridges both east and west of Yonge Street between Davenport Road and Eglinton Avenue. Because the bridges are part of the city's transportation infrastructure, the plaques are the responsibility of its transportation services department, rather than Heritage Toronto.

Staff are trying to determine what happened to the missing midtown plaques, said city spokesperson Laura McQuillan, but as of this week they "couldn't say where or when they went."

Like Matlow, Bateman says he has an idea.

"It's hard to draw any conclusion other than someone pried them off for the metal," Bateman said.

Matlow, whose Toronto-St. Paul's ward includes about half the affected bridges, told CBC Toronto he plans on asking city staff to look into the missing plaques with an eye to preventing future thefts.

"I don't like seeing taxpayers' money put into something that's stolen for somebody to sell off," he said. "It's a loss to the taxpayer, and we need to fix it."

Matlow suggested the city look into engraving the city logo and relevant dates directly into the bridges' concrete, or use a less valuable material when making future plaques.

Wynne said that solution is already being used by some agencies. 

The city's most recently installed plaques are made with ceramic or porcelain materials. They cost more to make, Wynne said, but they last longer since they're less attractive to thieves.