Toronto residents fight for changes to plan to build Ontario Line station on historic downtown site

Downtown Toronto community groups are fighting to reinstate plans for a library and a park that are 20 years in the making at the historic First Parliament Site — all threatened when the province swiftly expropriated the city-owned land in August. 

The provincial agency in charge of regional transit in Greater Toronto, Metrolinx, will use the full block at Front Street East and Parliament Street for a subway station and has suggested the rest be developed into condo towers. As the property's owner, it now has full control over the site where the province's first legislature stood, and how it is used. 

Its proposal is "aggressive" and would "obliterate" the city and community's vision for much-needed public space, including an interpretive centre to recognize its cultural and historical significance, Cynthia Wilkey, West Don Lands Committee co-chair, told Mayor John Tory's executive committee Wednesday.

She's among the residents who've joined city staff in negotiations with the province in hopes of finding a compromise. 

"We saw this proposal as entirely inconsistent with the city's intention to create a civic and commemorative entity," Wilkey said. "The response from our community has run the gamut of shock, anger, outrage, concern, investigation, analysis and finally proposition and some measure of optimism." 

She said so far in negotiations with the province, residents and city staff made progress in reducing the proposed density by about 20 per cent to make more room for green space.

The First Parliament Site is on land that was home to Indigenous communities for thousands of years, the city says. It was also where European settlers traded furs and where Upper Canada's parliament buildings were located until 1824. The site was then used as a jail and later for gas manufacturing.

Today it's a car dealership, car wash and parking lot.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said in a statement that the site was selected because it will connect the King streetcar line with the Ontario Line, a 15-stop rapid transit route that is slated to connect Ontario Place and the Canadian National Exhibition grounds to the Ontario Science Centre at Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road. 

She said the site is underused compared to its surroundings in Corktown.

"By using this site we're able to minimize impacts to nearby businesses, homes and green spaces," she said. 

Metrolinx will continue to collaborate with the community on how to develop the site after the station is constructed, using the city's plans as a "starting point," said Aikins. 

The province's decision to expropriate the land came as a complete surprise to city officials, CBC News reported in January.

It was also unnecessary, Kristyn Wong-Tam, the city councillor who represents the area, told the mayor's executive committee.