Public to get some of waterfront tech hub details
Waterfront Toronto’s decision to release a “robust” description of the deal with Sidewalk Labs comes after the agency insisted the contract remain secret.

TheStar.com
Oct. 29, 2017
David Rider

The intergovernmental agency developing Toronto’s east waterfront will release a “summary” of its deal with Sidewalk Labs after earlier saying the contract to start work on new high-tech district must remain secret.

A summary doesn’t go far enough for Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Mayor John Tory’s designate on the Waterfront Toronto board, who failed to convince fellow board members the public deserves to read the full agreement — disclosure that Google sister company Sidewalk Labs apparently supports.

“There’s a very strong argument that these are public lands and it’s in the public interest to know what agreements are being made that affect the waterfront,” Minnan-Wong, the deputy mayor, said in an interview after the board debated in closed session for hours on Friday.

“The public deserves to understand all aspects of the agreement and pass judgment on whether it’s a good agreement for the city of Toronto — they don’t need a filter.”

Helen Burstyn, chair of Waterfront Toronto, which is funded by the federal, Ontario and Toronto governments, said full disclosure is not prudent.

“We are committed to being open and transparent,” Burstyn, a former broadcaster and provincial Liberal candidate in 2011, told the Star after refusing to put Minnan-Wong’s proposal for full disclosure to a recorded vote because no other board member would second it.

“In the framework agreement there are commercially sensitive provisions that we are aware of and that we want to respect. A robust summary will be released,” publicly before Wednesday, when a public meeting will launch consultations on the “Sidewalk Toronto” project, she said.

Asked if Sidewalk Labs supports making the full agreement public, Burstyn said: “They are open to making it public; they’re also open to whatever position we take and being guided by that.”

A Sidewalk Labs representative said, in an email, the partners are “working hard to design a robust public engagement process” and that release of the summary is “an important step in that process.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, and a host of other dignitaries packed Corus Quay Oct. 17 to announce Sidewalk Labs had won a public tender process to develop Quayside, a desolate five-hectare site at Queens Quay E. and Parliament St., into a bustling mixed-use neighbourhood with cutting-edge technology.

Sidewalk Labs chief executive Dan Doctoroff said the deal commits his New York-based company to spend up to $50 million on a yearlong consultation and planning exercise, with no guaranteed plans to proceed, will be approved by his board and that of Waterfront Toronto.

But he outlined expansive plans for a functioning neighbourhood where innovation will be used to address the world’s biggest urban challenges.

Doctoroff noted his vision, if achieved fully, would need to spill beyond Quayside into some of the surrounding 800 acres of waterfront controlled by Waterfront Toronto. Asked how his company would profit, Doctoroff told the Star that innovation will present revenue opportunities. He earlier had told the Globe and Mail the development is “primarily is a real-estate play.”

Sidewalk Labs’ plans also suggest Toronto’s zoning rules might have to be modified for the new development.

The Star asked for a copy of the agreement. Once signed, such agreements with government agencies are often made public.

“This is a private contract that includes a confidentiality provision agreed to by both Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, and therefore isn’t a public document,” Carol Webb, a Waterfront Toronto project communications manager, replied Oct. 19 to the Star.

The Friday board meeting was called after the Star asked Sidewalk Labs and others for comment on the non-disclosure.

Asked about Waterfront’s earlier refusal, Burstyn said: “I don’t think that question (of disclosure) had been posed to the board yet.”

Minutes from the Oct. 16 Waterfront Toronto board meeting show the board had only four days to review the framework agreement before voting upon it.

Julie Di Lorenzo, chair of the board’s investment and real estate committee, “noted the concern regarding the accelerated manner in which the Committee was asked to deal with the matter.”

When it came time to vote on the agreement with Sidewalk Labs, the minutes state: “Ms. Di Lorenzo voted against the Resolution and requested that her dissent be noted in the Minutes.”