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“This is a plan that is going to create jobs, revitalize the Port Lands. If you look at what you saw today it’s absolutely amazing. We’re going to go out, we’re going to consult, but this is step one. People have been talking and talking for years and years and years. We’re not talkers. These two beside me are doers,” Mayor Ford told reporters later, flanked by councillors Peter Milczyn and Michael Thompson. “It’s a proven fact, we’re moving the ball down the field; we’re getting things done and we’re going to make this city just like a gold mine.”

But the Mayor may face a fight later this month, when city council considers whether to follow the executive’s lead. Centrist councillors Ana Bailao, Josh Matlow and Mary Margaret McMahon have already raised concerns about changing plans based on information presented thus far.

Critics say there may be merit to some new ideas, but consider the tighter timeline to be a fantasy, and insist that abandoning current plans would flush millions of planning dollars down the drain.

“The headline for me is Dubai comes to Toronto, and I don’t only mean that in terms of what this looks like, but the way this is being done, which is extraordinary,” Ken Greenberg, part of the architectural team that designed the master plan for the Lower Don Lands, said during a media briefing with Waterfront Toronto officials. It was organized by Councillor Adam Vaughan, a Ford foe. “That is, you have an Emir, or some group of people who hire international consultants of their own choosing, the public is not involved in any way, they’re presented with a fait accompli and that’s it,” said Mr. Greenberg.