Just days into his mayoralty, John Tory learned that the politics of Toronto's waterfront is anything but a pleasant stroll on the boardwalk.

Faced with Gardiner Expressway construction delays, intensifying controversy about the island airport expansion scheme and a $36-million cost overrun on the Queens Quay West reconstruction project, Mr. Tory spent much of December focusing on that narrow slice of the city south of Front Street. In fact, despite the mayor's goal of unifying a vast city, waterfront issues are expected to loom large over his and council's agenda in a year when Toronto hosts the Pan Am Games.

Here is what's coming on the waterfront for 2015.

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Lower Don River flood protection

As early as this month, provincial officials are expected to sign off on the environmental assessment of the ambitious $1-billion plan to reroute and naturalize the lower Don River through the portlands, creating a new river mouth and floodplain. Commercial redevelopment on the portlands and the fallow 14-acre Unilever site, fronting Lake Shore Boulevard east of the Don, dubbed Toronto's Canary Wharf, depend on the staged construction of flood-protection infrastructure. The three orders of government will share the expense.

Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell said in an interview that his agency intends to begin engineering studies later in the spring, and hopes to be "shovel ready" by 2016. But one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Toronto can't begin until Ottawa and the province agree to contribute their share of the overhead. Waterfront Toronto and City of Toronto sources are hopeful there will be progress this year because of the looming federal election. But collapsing world oil prices are wreaking havoc with Ottawa's surplus projections, and declining federal revenues could affect projects like these.

With deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong pressing Waterfront Toronto to be more financially transparent, the agency's cost projections for this undertaking will come under intense scrutiny. Mr. Campbell said the budget includes a "healthy contingency," but he added that as the agency completes its engineering studies, it will reassess the overall funding requirements.

Gardiner East demolition

A council committee last March decided to punt the contentious Gardiner file past the municipal election, and a staff report offering more detailed recommendations to council about what to do with the crumbling and controversial highway is expected early this year.

After chunks of the overpass began raining onto Lake Shore Boulevard in 2012, city officials estimated it would cost almost $700-million over 13 years to properly stabilize the expressway, and those numbers rekindled discussion about removing the 2.4-kilometre eastern portion between Jarvis Street and the Don Valley Parkway.

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Early in the municipal race, Mr. Tory said part of the eastern portion of the Gardiner would need to be rerouted or demolished to allow for office development on the Unilever site, but he subsequently stressed that he opposed any move that would increase commute times. City and Waterfront Toronto officials are studying a "hybrid" option that relocates some of the Gardiner east of Cherry Street.

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport

Waterfront activists, condo dwellers, builders and boaters are all watching closely to see whether Transport Canada green-lights a proposal to allow airlines to fly Bombardier's new C Series jets out of the facility. The plan requires the construction of 300- to 400-metre runway extensions into the harbour, as well as the deployment of six-metre-high noise barrier/blast deflectors. Bombardier is still testing prototype models.

As part of complex and tense negotiations with the city about the conditions required to either approve or reject the plan, the Toronto Port Authority has embarked on a voluntary environmental assessment of the runway expansion. An initial public meeting to determine the scope of the evaluation took place in late December, and a second one will take place this month. Mr. Campbell said Waterfront Toronto has decided to participate in the environmental assessment to encourage the port authority to consider the broader economic consequence of jets on the waterfront, and especially the impact on development in the portlands. The environmental assessment itself could begin in the fall.

Waterfront Toronto's funding

Almost halfway through its 25-year mandate, Waterfront Toronto has almost exhausted its initial tranche of funding, worth $1.5-billion in cash and land contributed by all three levels of government. With most of the federal contribution now spent, Waterfront Toronto officials have proposed that the agency be given borrowing authority to continue carrying out its mandate.

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City officials are evaluating Waterfront Toronto's mandate and the city's role in the three-way partnership; they will bring a report to council in late spring or early summer. Waterfront advocacy groups such as CodeBlueTO laud the agency for its planning and public-consultation efforts, but Mr. Tory was non-committal when asked about the agency's future before Christmas, telling reporters there should be a "discussion" about its current configuration.