If Premier Doug Ford wants a ferris wheel waterfront, his representatives will have to convince federal and city counterparts opposed to any efforts to “blow up” Waterfront Toronto.

As the Ford government prepares to appoint four members to the board of the federal-provincial-city agency, after dumping past appointees, the City of Toronto and federal government are poised to use their combined eight board members as a firewall to protect existing waterfront plans.

“We can’t allow short term thinking to shift the focus from waterfront revitalization to a sell-off,” of priceless land, says Councillor Joe Cressy, a downtown representative just appointed by council, with Mayor John Tory’s blessing, to the 12-member Waterfront Toronto board.

“My understanding is the premier has made it known he’s looking at changing the board in terms of its composition, not to throw in a grenade but rather to see improvements to governance. If that’s all it is, count me in.”

Adam Vaughan, the Liberal MP representing the same shoreline residents as Cressy, says if Ford appointees to the city-provincial-federal board attempt radical changes to plans for downtown waterfront development focused on people, not profit, they’ll have a fight on their hands.

Like Cressy, Vaughan says Ford appears, for the moment at least, content with sweeping out past Liberal appointees and getting his own people around the boardroom table on Bay St. steps from Lake Ontario.

But as a city councillor Vaughan fought his then-colleague Ford’s attempt to tear up decades-in-the-making Port Lands plans, for careful mixed-use development with private sector involvement overseen by government, in favour of a megamall, Ferris wheel and yacht-friendly hotel.

“Hopefully we can find a way to stabilize (the board) and move forward, but the vision holds, the work plan is a good one and the deliverables so far have been brilliant,” Vaughan told the Star.

“From the federal perspective, there is no need for any wholesale changes. We’re thrilled with the work (Waterfront Toronto) is doing — it’s one of the best infrastructure programs in the country.”

Provincial Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton recently fired three board members, including chair Helen Burstyn, after a stinging report by provincial auditor general Bonnie Lysyk. She accused the agency of inadequately consulting with governments on the Quayside smart-city project, failing to make other projects financially self-sustaining, and more.

The fourth provincial vacancy was made by the earlier resignation of Julie Di Lorenzo, a prominent developer who said efforts to draft a partnership agreement on Quayside with Google sister company Sidewalk Labs are not in the public’s best interests.

In a statement to the Star, McNaughton said the Waterfront Toronto needs “stronger oversight” and the new provincial appointees will be named “in the time ahead.”

“Any discussion at this point about specific actions we may or may not take is speculative. And I won’t speculate,” he said.

“I will say that our actions going forward will be guided by three principles: respect for taxpayer dollars, strong oversight and the protection of people’s privacy.”

Waterfront Toronto was set up in the early 2000s to oversee development of a once-industrial waterfront in danger of becoming a long, solid curtain of condo buildings where Torontonians hoping to visit their lake might be met by a security guard with a dog.

The three levels of government contributed funding to oversee 1,150 hectares along Lake Ontario from Dowling Ave. in the west to Coxwell Ave. in the east, including more than 300 city-owned acres in the Port Lands at the south end of the east downtown core.

The agency has a 12-member board — four from each government, electing a chair from amongst themselves, with the option of a 13th member as chair if all three governments agree on that appointment.

What worries some observers is that, while the governments appear to have equal power, Waterfront Toronto and the rules under which it operates were created in 2002 by provincial legislation that could be amended by a majority Ontario government like the one led by Ford.

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The province, which traditionally has a representative as board chair, has “a bit more power over the board operations than the federal and city partners because Waterfront Toronto is a creature of provincial legislation,” Vaughan said.

But “there are extensive and substantial investments by all three governments and multi-year contracts. Making real changes would not be as easy changing the size of city council ... The province has the capacity to be catalyst for change, but it doesn’t have final say on the outcome.”

Sevaun Palvetzian, chief executive of CivicAction and a federal Waterfront Toronto appointee, said it’s unusual to have three levels of government at one table but the board functions well.

“We’re all representing appointments from different orders of government but we’re all there, and vote, as individuals with the public interest in mind,” she said. “We have tonnes of work ahead of us, and the three new provincial members will bring fresh perspective and insight and expertise, but this is a ship that I have felt is moving in the right direction with many great folks rowing in the same way.”

Waterfront Toronto has been lauded for projects including Sugar Beach, Corktown Common, Sherbourne Common and undulating “wavedecks” along Queens Quay.

It has been criticized for extra cost and time taken to revitalize Queens Quay, and the safety of the “complete street” for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The Quayside proposal has generated a lot of controversy, much of it centred on protections for privacy and data generated in the proposed neighbourhood aimed at testing technology to solve urban problems.

Waterfront Toronto has just broken ground on a massive $1.25-billion flood-proofing of the east waterfront, cost-shared by the three governments, that will “renaturalize” the mouth of the Don River, create a new river valley and clean polluted land to unlock it for development.

Terms for Toronto’s three current citizen board appointees expire in March. One of them, developer Steve Diamond, said he had planned to quit at the end of 2018 due to work obligations but Tory convinced him to remain until March to retain stability on the board.

Tory told the Star any new members will reflect the city’s full confidence in Waterfront Toronto’s work and plans for the future.

“I am not one for blowing up the waterfront corporation, to use the expression that is bandied about,” Tory said. “I’m for making sure that as a partnership we continue to invest in projects like the naturalization of the Don and the flood protection, but also then the orderly, sensitive, compatible development of the Port Lands over time.

“If there are ways to improve it based on the auditor general report and other things, so be it. But I’m for building that waterfront corporation, not for tearing it down.”

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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