Sneak preview of new-look Ontario Place includes rock wall, walking trail
'This is a little bit of the country right here in the city.'

TheStar.com
Nov. 16, 2016
Jesse Winter

The first phase of the Ontario Place redevelopment will be open to the public this July, says tourism minister Eleanor McMahon.

On Wednesday, McMahon gave reporters a tour of the construction site to highlight the new park’s planned features, which include a 1,700-tonne granite rock wall, panoramic views of the Toronto skyline and plenty of nods to the area’s indigenous heritage.

A cycling and walking trail will wind through the park, connected to the Martin Goodman Trail that follows the GTA’s waterfront.

“Cities around the world that work, like New York, to which Toronto is arguably comparable, have lots of urban park space,” McMahon said.

“This is a little bit of the country right here in the city.”

Ontario Place has been closed since the provincial government shuttered it in 2012, following years of declining attendance. At the time the government promised to redevelop the site and reopen it in time for Canada’s 150th birthday on July 1, 2017.

Earlier this summer McMahon said the first phase, the urban park and the William G. Davis Trail, would be completed by the fall. She wouldn’t commit to a timeline for the rest of the redevelopment.

The government is still planning to keep the site publicly owned and aiming to have it be revenue neutral, though details about who might move in are still being worked out, she said.

“If it was an easy issue we would have resolved it already,” she said.

“The fact that it’s taking some time, I hope, indicates to people that we’re being very picky about who we chose to partner with,” she said.

Back in 2012, now-Toronto mayor John Tory led a panel that looked at possibilities for the future of Ontario Place. That report said that a mix of condos and businesses would be needed to stay afloat.

In October, the NDP accused the Liberal government of burying a clause in Bill 27 – an omnibus bill meant to reduce government red tape – that could allow the province to privatize the taxpayer-owned property.

On Wednesday McMahon called the Bill 27 changes “boiler plate,” and she swore there would be no condos built on the property.

“I can tell everyone categorically that Bill 27 does not change Ontario Place or our intentions at all. This is a jewel of an island, an absolutely beautiful urban landscape, and we’re doing everything we can to realize the vision that people told us they wanted,” McMahon said.

She also would not discuss the overall budget for the redevelopment itself, because some contracts are still out to tender.

The park itself will be a “great off-shoot of the Martin Goodman Trail,” said the project’s chief design architect, Patrick Morello.

One of the overarching themes of the park is the indigenous heritage of the land, Morello explained.

“Along the upper trail here there will be what we call marker trees. Marker trees were used by the First Nations communities to mark the way on a trail towards water. They were essentially signs that were used 300 years ago,” Morello said.

The site also includes a rock wall that evokes the Lake Iroquios shoreline. It was designed and built by hand at a quarry in Dwight, then reassembled at Ontario Place using GPS technology, Morello said.

A new summit area overlooks downtown Toronto, providing nearly 360-degree views of the lake and the skyline.

A ravine with an overarching bridge will include indigenous carvings and what Morello is calling the “Moccasin Identifier” that honours the heritage of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, upon whose traditional territory the new park sits.