For many years, the Toronto waterfront was an industrial area. Industries included heavy manufacturing, oil and coal storage, and waste disposal. Beginning in the 1970s, industries relocated to other locations, with the result that many of the sites would require considerable remediation if they were to be redeveloped in the future. Over the years, the City of Toronto and the federal and provincial governments initiated several projects to improve the area, including the construction of the CN Tower and the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre), and the remodelling of the Harbourfront area and Queen's Quay Terminal.
The TWRI is the most recent initiative linked to the improvement of the area. The area covered in the initiative includes an approximately 46-kilometre area of underutilized or underdeveloped real estate in close proximity to Toronto's waterfront.
In October 2000, following the recommendations of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force report, Our Toronto Waterfront: Gateway to a New Canada,1 the TWRI was launched as a partnership of the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto. Each of the three orders of government announced a funding commitment of $500 million, for a total of $1.5 billion. The taskforce and the funding supported Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and while the Games were subsequently awarded to Beijing the commitments from all three orders of government remained in place.
The objectives of the TWRI, as outlined in the program's terms and conditions, are to:
The federal government, with the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario, is a funding partner in the TWRI. Funding is provided through a contribution program. A contribution agreement template was developed, as per the Treasury Board Policy on Transfer Payments, with the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario. Federal contribution agreements are managed by a federal TWRI Secretariat currently housed within the department of Environment Canada.
Of the $500 million federal contribution to the TWRI, $410 million is being managed by the federal TWRI Secretariat and is allocated to contribution funding of selected projects and to operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses. The majority of these funds flow through the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC) as the primary designated recipient into projects that are implemented either directly by the corporation or by Eligible Recipients2 (as defined in the contribution agreement). The remaining $90 million was allocated to two projects through separate terms and conditions with Transport Canada ($25 million for the air-rail link) and Infrastructure Canada ($65 million for GO Transit improvements).
The federal investment in the TWRI was originally allocated over seven years, from 2000-2001 to 2007-2008. The provincial and municipal funds were allocated over a longer period, from 2000-2001 to 2014-2015. Due to unforeseen delays in the expenditure of federal funds, the federal funding commitment to the TWRI was extended for an additional three years to 2010-2011.
Waterfront revitalization projects are funded through unilateral, bilateral, or trilateral contribution agreements between one or more of the three orders of government and the TWRC. The original vision of the TWRI was based on the premise that all three orders of government would commit equal amounts of funding to shared priorities and projects. In 2004, as the initiative evolved, the governments identified both individual and shared priorities. The federal government has signalled funding priorities within the TWRI as parks, recreation and public spaces, although it continues to fund projects outside of these priority areas.3
Recognizing that the TWRI is shifting its focus from planning to implementation, and that successful infrastructure projects require comprehensive multi-year plans and financial commitments, in 2005 the three orders of government, with the TWRC, prepared and, in September 2005, approved, a first multi-year funding plan. The range of projects agreed to in this plan fully committed each government's $500 million investment in waterfront revitalization. However, recognizing that projects may proceed more slowly than planned and that priorities may change over time, the three governments also agreed that the multi-year funding plan would be subject to periodic review. Accordingly, the three government secretariats initiated a comprehensive review of the multi-year funding plan in April 2006 and, more recently, in fall 2007.
Since its inception, the TWRI has been overseen at the federal level by the Minister responsible for the Greater Toronto Area and/or Ontario. As this Minister does not always hold the same portfolio, as per an Order-in-Council, federal participation in the Initiative has been situated in various departments since its inception, as shown in Table 1.
Date | Department | Order-in-Council |
---|---|---|
October 2000 to March 7, 2004 | Transport | 2003-1769 2003-1768 2001-0767 |
March 8, 2004, to February 2, 2005 | Human Resources and Skills Development | 2004-0167 2004-0166 2004-0165 |
February 3, 2005, to February 5, 2006 | Citizenship and Immigration | 2005-0136 2005-0135 2005-0134 2005-0133 |
February 6, 2006, to January 3, 2007 | Treasury Board Secretariat | 2006-0076 2006-0075 2006-0074 2006-0073 |
January 4, 2007, to present | Environment | 2007-0015 2007-0014 2007-0013 2007-0012 |
A federal TWRI Secretariat manages the federal component of the TWRI on behalf of the federal government. The Director of the TWRI exercises functional federal authority for the contribution agreements and is responsible for the program management of federally funded projects. The responsibilities of the federal TWRI Secretariat include the following:
Policy Development
Program Implementation and Management
Coordination
The federal TWRI Secretariat was established at the department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) in 2005, and was later transferred to Citizenship and Immigration (CIC), Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and, finally, to Environment Canada.
To oversee the planning and implementation of the TWRI, the three governments established the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC), a corporation under its own provincial legislation, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation Act, 2002, which came into force in May 2003. In 2007, the TWRC was renamed Waterfront Toronto for communications purposes, remaining the TWRC under its Act. The mandate of the TWRC is to oversee an estimated $17 billion revitalization effort over approximately 30 years.4
The specific objectives of the TWRC are:
The TWRC Act sets out the operating parameters of the Corporation, including its objects, structure, and limitations. For example, the corporation may not borrow funds without the approval of the three orders of government or through provincial regulation. The Act specifies that the corporation is not an agent of any level of government and is governed by a Board of Directors. Each level of government can appoint up to four members to the Board, and jointly appoint the chair of the Board.
Governmental oversight for the TWRI is provided through the Intergovernmental Steering Committee (IGSC), which was established in October 2000. The IGSC is intended to provide a focal point for intergovernmental management and coordination of the TWRI. The TWRC reports its progress to the IGSC. The IGSC membership consists of:
Meetings are convened on a quarterly, or as needed, basis. Working groups reporting to the IGSC have also been established as needed.
The IGSC established an Operations Working Group to be responsible for ensuring sound program management of TWRI contribution agreements. Chaired by the federal TWRI Secretariat and composed of program officials from the three orders of government, this working group meets quarterly to ensure a coordinated approach to contribution agreement management; contribution agreement compliance with respective governmental and departmental policies, procedures and legislation; and coordination and information sharing with respect to TWRI audit and evaluation activities. It also serves as a forum for information and best practices sharing and provides recommendations and advice to the IGSC.
The three orders of government and the TWRC also hold monthly teleconferences to help coordinate and manage TWRI activities.
1 Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force, Our Toronto Waterfront.
2 Eligible Recipient: a person, other than TWRC, who, in respect of any Project, is identified in
Schedule A of the Contribution Agreement as the person responsible to carry out that project.
3 Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Results-based Management and Accountability Framework,
p. 4.
4 Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. Development Plan and Business Strategy. p. 6.