Province announces new green space at Ontario Place

The 20-acre parcel, located on the eastern island of Ontario Place, is slated to take about three years to complete.

Thestar.com
Feb. 8, 2018
Julien Gignac

The province announced plans to revive under used space on the easterly island of Ontario Place on Thursday.

The 20-acre parcel of land has been deemed the “Celebration Common,” a multi-use green space to link with other sites such as the recently reopened Cinesphere and Trillium Park.

The Ontario government has partnered with architectural design firm DTAH to put together the waterfront development. The business worked on Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works, a project that revamped a former industrial site in the Don Valley into an environmentally conscious community.

The emergence of more condominiums near Ontario Place prompted the province to deliver more open-air space for residents, and people in the rest of the city and beyond, said Daiene Vernile, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

“The multi-purpose park will be Toronto’s newest waterfront attraction,” she said.

“It’s going to be used for open air cultural activities, festivals, community events and recreation.

“There’s even going to be a beach there.”

James Roche, a DTAH partner present at the announcement at Ontario Place, said the project will likely take about three years.

“It’s an exciting time for the province and for the city to see a cherished amenities’ space get a refresh for generations to come,” he said, adding that Echo Beach will be “reinvented.”

A procurement process to draw up construction contracts is underway. As a result, the figure for the budget for the project will not be released yet.

“This information will become available once the planning-and-design phase is complete,” said a ministry spokesperson.

He said the land has been somewhat dormant for 40 years, and there is some “wear and tear” on it.

“Part of this exercise is to enhance one’s relationship to the city, to the water, so we’ll be looking at improving that condition,” he said. “It’s improving that for the next 40 years.”

The plan carries forward work from last June which saw Trillium Park and the William G. Davis Trail open to the public. The trail, located on Ontario Place's East Island, was a parking lot before it was developed. The entire project took three years to build. Indigenous culture was woven into the design of the 7.5-acre green space, including carvings of moccasins along an underpass of a footbridge. All foliage -- 1,200 and 28,000 shrubs and perennials -- is Indigenous.

Stacey Laforme, a chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, said he plans to pitch the idea for a museum to be constructed at Celebration Common, where “hard discussions” can play out about Canada’s Indigenous-settler history. It would dovetail, he continued, with a space in which First Nations could showcase their distinct cultures.

“The true history of all the people in Canada,” he said. “I want Toronto to be a tourist attraction for the world, a destination. When people from around the world come here, there’s no Indigenous presence, per se, and that needs to change because there’s so many Indigenous people who live here.”

He added that the plan to develop Ontario Place is a good start.

“It’s about time Ontario Place was used for something besides being a place nobody ever went to anymore,” he said.