The man behind Toronto’s mystery tunnel says it was not the first — only the biggest.

Elton McDonald, the Toronto construction worker who said he’s behind the 10-metre long tunnel discovered in January by authorities in the Black Creek woods, is a man with a passion.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.

The 22-year-old first started dreaming about digging a tunnel, “the future of clubhouses,” when he was a kid. Starting with bikes and go-carts, McDonald learned how to build things from an early age, eventually working his way up to construction jobs in Grade 7.

“It’s something I always wanted to do, this is not my first time digging a tunnel. I’d dug other tunnels before but not something to this extent,” he said. “Not like huge tunnels, you could say holes.”

Over the last few years, McDonald started to practise digging the tunnel of his dreams. He’d dig a four-foot tunnel, fill it back in. Dig another four-foot tunnel, fill it back in.

But when he came across the heavily wooded location near York University on land operated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, he knew he had a good spot for something bigger.

“It was a pretty covered-up location,” he said.

And then he got to work.

With the help of a few friends over the course of a year and a half, McDonald dug his dream tunnel, complete with BBQ, plywood walls and even a rosary.

“Sometimes the cave would collapse when I was digging,” he said.

One day, his sister asked him if he was safe when he worked his construction jobs, and gave him the rosary as protection.

“Sometimes I make a prayer before I start working,” he said.

But one thing he didn’t think about was whose land it was on.

“I always just thought it was the creek, I had been going there since I was a kid,” he said.

McDonald said the TRCA, which has said it would seek a nonpunitive settlement, hasn’t reached out to him.

“I’d be happy to put hours in, because I’m still deeply sorry, because I probably should have asked someone, or asked more question(s) or do more homework before I put a hole in the ground,” he said.

Although some have expressed annoyance that McDonald’s tunnel cost the police and TRCA time and money, he said he thinks there are worse ways to spend the taxpayers’ dime.

“There are other things out there that are more pointless,” McDonald said.

And he’s not done yet. He wants to build another tunnel someday.

“Definitely, when I have my own property,” he said.

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Since coming forward as the builder behind the mystery tunnel, McDonald has been under the spotlight, and said he’s received requests from people who want him to help build a tunnel of his own.

“People would call me and want me to build tunnels for them,” he said. “Right now I’d just rather not do that, I don’t know what they’re up to or their intentions.”

Instead, he said he wants to start his own landscaping business, and employ local youths, teaching them the tools of the trade.

“Paying it back forward somehow, someway,” he said.

In order to get the business off the ground, he’s appealing to the public to help him raise $10,000 through an online crowdfunding campaign. As of Thursday night, he has raised $420. He said he doesn’t know how much he’d pay the youths, or other fine points of the business.

“There’s an outline, but not details or anything yet,” he said.

“There are some people who are proud of what I’ve done and want to see me go far, coming from the neighbourhood where I’m from.”

McDonald grew up not far from the tunnel, where he said he saw his share of drugs and violence, even watching friends die.

“I know how to get to these kids around my neighbourhood, so I’m sure I could make it work for them.”

McDonald said people should “do their homework first” before digging a tunnel of their own and that they shouldn’t do it on public property. But while he’s sorry he dug it on public property, he also thinks his story is inspirational to others.

“Even if they have dreams, they can always fulfill them, they’re never too old,” he said.

“I know there’s something out there for me, there’s a reason why I’m here.”