I want you to compare a historical published City Debt Repayment Schedule that spans 2023 to 2027. You will see that in 2026, payments of $7 Million appear, with $12 Million beginning in 2027.
Now look at the updated schedule, as reported by The Pointer. Notice the line item for the Innovation Centre now reads $0.
Where did the $19 Million go?
When I call for Transparency and Accountability, this is one example. I shouldn’t need a private investigator to know what’s going on in our City, and with Our Money. If the project was cancelled, take it off the chart. If you rearranged the financing, make that clear. What happened?
I’m lucky, I’ve got friends in low places that I can call upon to point me in the right direction. And point me in the right direction they did.
On February 2, 2026, staff brought forward a new planning framework covering the CFI site together with the Heritage Theatre Block and Southern Block. Council’s Planning and Development Committee approved directions to:
1) establish a special policy area for the lands;
2) seek TRCA endorsement and provincial pre-approval;
3) permit development subject to flood-risk mitigation and indemnification arrangements; and
4) return to council with a final Official Plan amendment.
The resolution expressly stated that there were “no financial implications resulting from the recommendations in this report.” As a lawyer, I have no idea how rearranging $19 Million in projected debt and signing Indemnification Agreements for Flood Damage equals No Financial Implications … but I’ll let one slide.
I want to focus on another point: the City has finally tacitly admitted that the project could not have been built within the existing flood plain restrictions.
This begs the question: how much money have we wasted to date on a project everyone at City Hall knew couldn’t be built as promised?
Shouldn’t taxpayers be sharpening their pitchforks right about now?
Again, all of this is being done in loyalty to the ‘Four Corners as our Downtown’ strategy. A strategy pursued for over 20 years to no ascertainable avail. A strategy that depends entirely upon an enormous capital project that we haven’t fully funded yet (ie: Riverwalk).
I am proposing a new strategy. Divest the lands we have assembled in Four Corners, focus the necessary resources on completing the Flood Diversion upgrade, and we let the private market build. We reset the area to our Historic Downtown, and build a New Downtown outside of the Floodplain, specifically along the Queen Street Corridor and Kennedy Road South. The same money we planned to spend in Four Corner will build far more amenities outside the Floodplain than it ever would have built inside the Floodplain.
This October, vote for Change. Vote for Transparency, Accountability, and Respect for the Taxpayer. Vote for New Leadership with a New Vision. Vote for evidence based decision making. Vote for Wesley Jackson. Let’s Build a Brighter Future, and a City That Works For You
