By Eric Morse –

With planning for the 2015 Pan Am games finally coming together, city council has announced that it is exploring the feasibility of putting forward a bid for Expo 2025 and they are looking to the as-yet-undeveloped Port Lands as one possible location for the massive project.

Supporters include the mayor and representatives from almost all factions, backed by widespread private support. The principal opponent to the idea—at this early stage— appears to be the prime minister.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam told a West Don Lands Committee (WDLC) meeting Sept. 23 that a letter from the city to Harper has been drafted, with signatures pledged (at press time) from 64 public and private figures, including former mayoral candidate John Tory, Downtown councillors Wong-Tam, Fletcher, Vaughan, Layton and McConnell, former mayor David Crombie, leaders of principal civic and business organizations, and MPs, MPPs and Senators from all major parties.

The letter asks that the federal government delay withdrawal until the city can complete due diligence and put forward a proposal.

The exploratory study now under way is based on a motion adopted by council in June 2012.

Wong-Tam emphasized that the initiative is still in the very preliminary stages, but that the pillars of any bid proposal would be diversity and sustainability. And a spur to remediation and infrastructure development in the Port Lands, for which there is now a 4-phase development plan.

The WDLC agreed to support the initiative, which will go forward to executive committee of council on Oct. 24.

The issue appears to be that the Harper government has announced its intention to withdraw from the governing International Board of Expositions (IBE) by the end of 2013, citing costs of membership ($25,000 per annum), an unanticipated bloat in 2010 Olympics federal security costs, and a perception in government that in a wired age, physical World Expositions are obsolete.

Canada has hosted two World Expositions: Expo 67 in Montreal and Expo 86 in Vancouver. Advocates point to the success of both in attracting tourism and in raising profile at relatively less cost than an Olympics. Expos last 6 months as opposed to an Olympics’ two weeks, and the pavilions themselves are paid for by the sending governments and these days are modular and removable, so that the site infrastructure and footprint can be built with further usage and development in mind.

The latest Expo, Shanghai 2010, attracted 72 million visitors. (Expo ’67 attracted just over 50 million visitors in a country that had a population of only 20 million at the time; the Toronto group is postulating attendance of 40 million.)

The next Expo is to take place in Milan 2015.

The bidding process is somewhat similar to that for an Olympics, with these major differences: the IBE is an inter-governmental organization while the International Olympic Committee and its national bodies are private, and governments put forward candidate cities for an Expo. Given the scales and costs of both events the difference may seem marginal, but it does mean that individual Expo cities have less leverage at all stages of the process. A bid must be registered with the IBE by 2016.

Beaches-East York MP Matt Kellway noted that the proposal is in a sense defensive. “In the absence of a catalytic event like an Expo, the development of the Port Lands will take a 30-year period, and in that period there is a lot of harm that could be done and opportunities squandered (by piecemeal development),” Kellway told the meeting.

Sources in Ottawa have noted to The Bulletin that Mayor Ford’s representations to date have met with a stonewall in the Prime Minister’s office. Sources also suggest that the planned Canadian withdrawal from IBE is part and parcel of a much broader disengagement from international organizations in general by the Harper Government.