Yet another Ford illegal…

Yet another Ford illegal proposal defiant of public interests, ignoring environmental concerns for decades and breaching international agreements for which no mandate exists.

I am commenting on the proposal for an interim combined sewer to support development at 955 Lake Shore Boulevard (Ontario Place). I am opposed to the proposal which goes against decades of work by the City of Toronto to separate and replace combined sewers across the city to prevent the discharge of raw sewage into Lake Ontario. It also flies in the face of international agreements to protect water quality and habitat in the Great Lakes. This effluent also risks human health in terms of water quality at beaches, fishing and the quality of the lake as an attraction for Canadian and international visitors. The province has also not held any consultations about this work with the general public.

This proposal to benefit private sector initiatives, is not in the public interest and threatens the stability of the lake ecosystem in a time of severe biodiversity loss. Please deny this permit.

The Ford government is in a rush (for reasons unknown) to push through the development of the Therme MegaSpa. They have accelerated the timeline by a year to May 2025.

As a result, they need to do a 2-year temporary redirect to the West Channel (an area used by swimmers, rowers and paddlers and of course, wildlife) of a sewer system as it will interfere with the 10-acre landfill extension of the Therme MegaSpa development.

The City already has a multi-year plan in place to deal with this issue properly but due to the timing of the contract with Therme, the Ford government and Infrastructure Ontario are pushing through their needs.

Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are once again being wasted to prioritize a private forreign company profit by externalizing costs over the wellbeing of the public and the environment.

This is bald corruption. Deny this Ford proposal for illegal permit.