A Toronto drug company says a proposed condo project threatens 'national security.' Here's why

A pharmaceutical company in north Toronto is objecting to a proposed new condo development next door on the grounds that the hundreds of residents looking down on its facility will represent a threat to national security.

Sanofi Pasteur is expanding its Steeles Avenue West manufacturing facility because, according to a letter from the company's lawyers, it has won a contract to make future pandemic relief vaccines for the federal and provincial governments. But the company worries that two new towers proposed by developer Tenblock at 1875 Steeles Ave.W. could jeopardize its security.

"The location of hundreds of new residential units with a 24/7 overlook of its sensitive facilities undermines Sanofi's ability to ensure its ongoing and expanding vaccine research and manufacturing facilities are secure," reads a letter from Sanofi's lawyers to city planners.

And that, the letter continues, "represents national security concerns given the strategic importance of the site for vaccine manufacturing and future pandemic readiness."

The company has signed a contract with the federal and provincial governments worth $850 million, according to Coun. James Pasternak, who represents Ward 6, York Centre, where the drug company and the proposed condo site are located. Sanofi Pasteur wrote to Pasternak asking him for support in its effort to get the city planners to rethink the condo project.

The new facility would manufacture vaccines to help fight any future pandemic. Just a few hundred metres away, however,  developer Tenblock has applied to erect two condo towers, each of which would be more than 30 storeys high. And Pasternak says Sanofi Pasteur's concerns are not just corporate NIMBYism.

"I think they have a valid point," he told CBC Toronto..

"This is a strategic site not only for Canada but worldwide and everything we can do to protect it, I think we have to take those measures."

Walid Hejazi, who specializes in national security at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, agrees that foreign countries intent on disrupting Canada's ability to fight a future pandemic, or who want to produce their own vaccine, could target a facility like the Sanofi Pasteur campus. 

"When you think about vaccines and the development of any sort of product that has high intellectual property rights, vaccines are incredibly important now," Hejazi told CBC Toronto.

"Being able to maintain the integrity of the physical perimeter is very important, not just in terms of someone crossing into that environment, but people being able to spy from sort of high locations that are located close by," he added.

"That's very, very important."

Pasternak said the city is working with Tenblock, in the hope they'll agree to bring the height of the towers down to about 10 storeys. But he said it will likely be more than a year before the city offers any final approvals and construction gets underway. 

Neither Sanofi Pasteur nor Tenblock would speak with CBC Toronto but both companies issued statements.