Toronto’s relationship with its waterfront has never been an easy one. City hall’s attitude to the land along the edge of Lake Ontario has ranged from indifference to outright hostility.

Little wonder then that efforts to revitalize the waterfront have been led by the provincial and federal governments. Since they and the city created Waterfront Toronto in 2001, the tripartite agency has often had to fight civic officials to fulfil its mandate.

From David Miller to John Tory, Toronto mayors have had trouble grasping the importance of the waterfront to the future of the city. Their behaviour has made it clear they have no clue that the waterfront is where this hapless burg will finally enter the 21st century.

So when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne joined Mayor Tory last week to announce $1.25 billion in new funding for Waterfront Toronto to flood-proof the Port Lands, they confirmed city hall’s role as a paying spectator at its own history. Clearly, they realize Toronto is too important to be left to the municipal government.

Toronto’s confusion is revealed by the contradiction between Tory’s commitment both to enlarge the east end of the Gardiner Expressway and contribute $400 million to the Port Lands. If waterfront revitalization is worth so much, why keep an aging expressway that blocks access to the lake for the benefit of a handful of drivers?

Council’s fixation on traffic has also led it to resist such harbingers of urban maturity as cycling and pedestrianism. To its tired eyes, the Port Lands is little more than an industrial wasteland. This came clear when, at the very moment the $1.25 billion was announced, Etobicoke councillor Mark Grimes declared that he and the city had found “a potential relocation site” for a much detested concrete plant in Mimico. That site? The Port Lands.

How does this align with a scheme that would see a mixed-use community with parks, public transit and a renaturalized mouth of the Don River? As well as economic spinoffs amounting to billions, the reimagined Port Lands will basically add a second downtown-sized neighbourhood to the city. The new funding will go toward remaking the landscape to allow water from the Don to flow directly into the lake and thus avoid flooding. The Keating Channel will remain, but a river will run through the proposed community to handle the run-off when necessary.

Given the new reality of seemingly permanent rain, urban flooding and high water levels, the need for Port Lands remediation is more urgent than ever. Again, this doesn’t quite jive with Official Toronto’s reluctance to deal with climate change meaningfully. Just weeks ago, Tory told his executive committee to refuse a dedicated levy that would have helped cover the costs of stormwater management and basement flooding protection.

Toronto wants to take action, but only if it doesn’t have to pay for it. That’s why the involvement of federal and provincial governments is critical to Toronto’s future. And lest one think that the city can’t afford the price of civic excellence, keep in mind council approved the estimated $1-billion Gardiner expansion and $3.5 billion for a Scarborough subway extension that every transit expert has dismissed.

This city isn’t poor, it’s cheap. Big difference. Yet another reason waterfront revitalization, which has flourished under Waterfront Toronto, would have failed under city control. And let’s see how Tory’s Port Lands pledge plays out. In a city with so many other priorities — suppose the Gardiner expansion goes over budget, which most assuredly will happen — the promised $400 million is far from a sure thing.

What’s important now is to keep the city far away from the Port Lands and allow designers and planners to get on with the job free of political interference and municipal mediocrity. The flood protection proposal, prepared by Toronto’s Ken Greenberg and Michael Van Valkenburgh of New York, will get things off to a strong start. Their scheme is simple, flexible and doable.

But Torontonians should know that $1.25 billion will set the stage, not furnish it. It will go to the largely invisible stuff that is a precondition for growth. The other waterfront example was the massive berm built on the west side of the Don a decade or so ago. Though barely noticed, it made the West Don Lands possible.

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Sometimes, what matters most isn’t what you see but what you don’t.

Christopher Hume’s column appears weekly. He can be reached at jcwhume4@gmail.com

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