While a number of Torontonians are “conditionally receptive” to some of the ideas in Sidewalk Labs’ proposed master plan for developing a tech-driven neighbourhood on the waterfront, some are distrustful of the firm, its sister company Google and parent firm Alphabet, a Waterfront Toronto study finds.

The Waterfront Toronto report is based on findings from July when more than 1,000 people participated in the first round of Waterfront Toronto’s public consultations on Sidewalk Labs’ Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP), a massive 1,500-plus page document released in the spring that sets out the company’s proposed plans for the eastern waterfront.

Sidewalk Labs’ proposal, which still needs approval from its tri-government partner Waterfront Toronto, includes calls for a district with tech-based assets such as self-driving cars, heated pavements that melt snow and sensors that collect data in the public realm.

The project would begin at Quayside, a 12-acre plot near Queens Quay E. and Parliament St. that Sidewalk wants to turn into a mixed-use project that would include buildings made from timber.

Sidewalk Labs and partner Waterfront Toronto have set an Oct. 31 deadline to resolve “threshold” issues — including the former’s call for a new LRT line on the waterfront, which Waterfront Toronto says it lacks the power to commit to.

The public consultations included four public meetings, seven drop-in information sessions at Toronto public libraries, written submissions and online engagement.

The report said there were participants at every meeting receptive to some ideas in the Sidewalk Labs plan, such as the climate positive and sustainability themes behind the project, the potential for the company’s proposal to accelerate transit projects, the potential for new jobs, tax revenue and affordable housing, and the opportunity to create a “world-leading” digital governance framework.

But the report also notes that “many concerns and questions” were raised during the consultations including worries about “data collection, surveillance and the inability to get informed consent from citizens” when data in the public realm is collected in the neighbourhood.

Several participants were also wary of Sidewalk Labs’ “overreaching” plans to expand its project beyond Quayside.

If Sidewalk Labs “proves out” its innovations at Quayside, the firm wants to expand them into the Port Lands.

The report also noted there were participants in the consultation who demonstrated a “lack of trust” in Sidewalk Labs, Google, and parent company Alphabet, and a “lack of transparency” when it comes to how the companies have operated in other cities.

Sidewalk Labs did not participate in putting together or delivering the consultation process; representatives from the firm did attend the meetings as observers, the report says.

“Waterfront Toronto has previously outlined concerns about certain foundational issues that need to be resolved before we invest in a full evaluation, and those concerns were echoed in the feedback we received during the public consultations,” Waterfront Toronto spokesperson Andrew Tumilty said in a statement Friday.

Sidewalk Labs spokesperson Keerthana Rang said the firm looks forward to reviewing the consultation report.

Sidewalk Labs’ master plan proposal submitted in June reflects “18 months of work and input from more than 21,000 Torontonians. That input profoundly shaped our plan and has been instrumental in developing our bold vision to tackle congestion, build affordable housing, and generate economic growth on Toronto’s eastern waterfront,” Rang added.

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But Thorben Wieditz, spokesperson for #Blocksidewalk, a citizens group trying to get Sidewalk Labs’ plan tossed, said the feedback from the public consultations represents a “sharp rebuke to the arrogant overreach of Sidewalk Labs’ draft plan.

“Comments from nearly every roundtable portray a lack of trust in Alphabet, Google and/or Sidewalk Labs — either due to the companies’ track record, or due to direct encounters with Sidewalk Labs,” Wieditz says.

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