Will Toronto turn its city-run golf courses into parks?

Thestar.com
October 5, 2020

Toronto city staff are looking at “alternate” uses for five city-owned golf courses.

But city councillors who will have the final say seem cool to calls to end publicly run golf and repurpose the sprawling green spaces as new parks or urban farms.

“There’s open space all over the city -- if you want to start urban farming, knock yourselves out,” a “furious” Coun. Stephen Holyday (Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre) told council colleagues Friday, reacting to calls to close the courses.

“They’re busy, they’re more important than ever,” Holyday said of the courses, predicting that if council decides to “blow open the gates” to other uses, some “kid might come at night with a dirt bike and rip up the greens.”

The seemingly innocuous item -- city staff asking to extend by at least two years leases with a private sector operator of Dentonia Park, Don Valley, Humber Valley, Scarlett Woods and Tam O’Shanter golf courses, and a similar extension for the separately run Centennial Park course -- triggered fierce sentiments.

While controversial items at council can draw hundreds of emails and other public submissions, this one drew 1,749. Many suggested the days of manicured fairways and greens off limits to all but fee-paying golf enthusiasts should end.

The courses “are in dense populations with low-income neighbourhoods that have inadequate access to parks,” Melana Roberts, chair of Food Secure Canada recently told the Star’s Karon Liu. “Build a city for the people who live here and not for the privileged few.”

Toronto Environmental Alliance called for “deep” public consultation, including Indigenous Torontonians, on proposals to repurpose the land for food production and other environmentally sustainable uses benefitting marginalized residents.

Coun. Mike Layton (Ward 11 University Rosedale) failed to get his colleagues to order a two-month pause on lease extensions so the public can be consulted on uses that “better meet the needs of the communities as part of the city’s pandemic response and beyond.”

Several councillors said the city course are well-used, with an estimated total 130,000 rounds played in 2019, provide habitat for birds and other animals, and could be used more, especially in winter, without ripping out tees and flags.

Council approved a motion from Coun. Gary Crawford (Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest) to proceed with the lease extensions but also get city staff to “assess opportunities for alternate recreational and community uses” and report back in 2021 when a consultant’s report is due.

City staff will conduct a public consultation that will include golfers, Indigenous Torontonians and others on opportunities for the city-owned land.

Finishing a three-day meeting, city council also voted to shelve preparations for a possible switch to a new way of electing council members in the 2022 civic election and instead look for a possible change in 2026.

Last year city staff had been instructed to get ready for a possible switch to ranked ballots, where voters can choose multiple candidates for their local councillor and mayor, ranking them from first choice on down.

Frequently used by political parties to choose leaders, and recently tried by some North American cities, including London, Ont., the goal is to reduce negative campaigning and increase ethnic and social diversity on council.

The current system, where the candidate with the most votes wins, has seen Toronto councillors elected with as little as 17 per cent support. Also, city council is much whiter and much more male than the city population that councillors serve.

Council agreed to a request from the city clerk to abandon plans for a possible switch in 2022. She said pandemic impacts, including the inability to hold large public meetings, would make impossible the public consultations and education required for such a major change.