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Editorial

TOASTING THE DOCKS WITH CHAMPAGNE


July 20, 1999

Noteworthy why City of Toronto bureaucrats would tell Toronto Free Press that running a ferry service to The Docks was merely a 'pilot' project.

In our cover story, "Toronto's Ferry Boat Hijack" (June 23-July 6), delivering patrons to the Dock's doors via Toronto Island ferries was described by bureaucrats as only a test run.

"We're really only looking at six or seven weekends in total, and we're trying to beef up our ferry service for everybody," said Gary Sims, Supervisor of Metro Ferry Docks. Indicating that council would review the pilot project in December, Sims said, "If we try it and it fails, that will be the end of it."

A few weeks later found Councillors Jack Layton and Pam McConnell hamming it up for Toronto Star cameras, as they launched the Island Princess ferry with champagne.

..."City officials have teamed up with the owners of The Docks to run a ferry service between the popular port lands entertainment complex and the waterfront terminal at the foot of Bay St. and Centre Island," chronicled The Star.

In TFP's cover story, city bureaucrats coyly denied that their ferry pilot project had anything to do with Dock's owner Jerry Sprackman.

History has proven that the suspicions of Toronto Island residents like Deborah Danniels weren't too far off the mark.

"It amazes me that people (City Council) are so gullible as to actually believe that the rationale for this pilot project ferry dock at the foot of Polson Street is, as Joe Halstead (Commissioner Economic Development, Culture & Tourism) states, a 'response to a demand for service to and from the Portland area, and to provide relief from limited parking and congestion at the Queen's Quay Ferry Terminal'," said Danniels. "It's obvious that this demand came from Jerry Sprackman of The Docks Nightclub."

In defending the pilot project, Halstead also said that it (the expansion) may improve access to 'the emerging parklands and greenspace that is located within the Portland area'.

"All anyone has to do is look at a map of that area, and you can see there is extremely limited parking at Polson Street and what there is, services The Docks Nightclub. As for greenspace, it hasn't emerged yet," said Danniels.

The champagne waving Layton and McConnell say the 65-seat ferry Island Princess, which will continue to be used on a rental basis on offdays, is the first step in a larger plan to redevelop the rundown area.

"It's a first initiative to bring the port lands into Toronto," said McConnell.

The owners of the Docks will share the costs of the pilot project with the city. The total cost hasn't been provided, but the city owns the ferry and is paying the $10,000 for docking space. The Docks will assist with other costs and pay to promote the service.

According to the Star story, "Both hope the ferry service will become a permanent feature in the port lands."

"There is no downside to this," Layton chirps.

It is hardly likely that their downtown constituents, many of whom have a running battle with The Docks, expected their local councillors to jump into bed with the enemy.

The new champagne image for Layton and McConnell is at odds with the beer drinking, union hall image of socialism.

Layton's claim that his ideas for revedeloping the port lands include creating new jobs, cleaning up the polluted land, preserving the industries while adding new businesses and making Cherry Street more vibrant, don't wash with some.

The downtown councillor's main interest in the port lands stems from his dreams for an Olympic Village in the area for 15,000, if his friend David Crombie finds success in landing the 2008 Olympics.

Even with champers as a photo prop, any portrayal of Jack and Pam as pro-business, job-providing types is no easy sell.

Layton and McConnell also portray themselves as patron saints of the homeless. Yet, one was caught holed up with his wife and mother-in-law in a taxpayer-subsidized downtown co-op. The other still lives among the single mothers in her ward in a townhouse co-op, having both her digs and salary picked up by the Toronto taxpayer.