Union Station

In the early 1970s, John was very active in organizing the Toronto community to stop the proposed demolition of Union Station. The first threat came from the proposed Metro Centre development (one chapter of John's book Up Against City Hall talks about that major redevelopment, which was finally stalled). A few years later another proposal arrived to redevelop the station. It, too, was abandoned. It seemed the Station's future was more or less secure but, that has proven not to be the case.

In September 2002, John helped organized the Save Union Station Committee. This occurred after City Council had undertaken a bidding process which seemed flawed, Only two bids had been received: one from the Union Pearson Group, a Toronto-based consortium led by Larry Tanenbaum, owner of the Air Canada Centre, the Toronto Raptors basketball team and the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team; and a Chicago based company, LP Heritage, which had restored Grand Central Station in New York. The city refused to make either of the bids public, not even available to members of City Council. These matters remained secreted with the Selection Committee consisting of three senior members of Toronto staff, two representatives of the federal government, and one Toronto architect. The Committee had been established to ostensibly ensure there was no undue lobbying of councillors, and the committee would recommend to council what bid was best, and what should be done.

The Selection Committee recommended that city council pursue with the Union Pearson Group a contract to renovate parts of the Station. But the process meant it was impossible to tell what either bid consisted of, their financial ramifications, or why one bid was better than another

The Save Union Station Committee argued strongly that the secrecy was wrong and that it was unclear how the public interest would be protected. The struggle over Union Station turned into a major fiasco for the city.

In January 2003, after citizen Laurence David had filed a Freedom of Information request, it was learned that the documents recording the way the Selection Committee had voted had been destroyed by the City's lawyer, contrary to law and to practice. Then Mayor Mel Lastman decided he had a conflict of interest because his son was a business associate with Mr. Tanenbaum, although for many months the mayor had denied such a conflict.

In a raucous council meeting in February 2003, councillors appointed a former judge, now acting as the province's Integrity Commissioner, to investigate the matter. The investigation revealed that the Selection Committee had held two votes. The first vote was won by LP Heritage, but unbeknownst to anyone but insiders, allegations were made that LP Heritage did not have the financial capacity to undertake the development even though it had been financially prequalified. Secretly, six weeks later, a second vote was taken by the committee. On the second vote, Paula Dill, the City's Commissioner of Urban Development Services, awarded LP Heritage three zeros in nine of the categories. Because of her vote – and only because of her vote - LP Heritage did not get as many points as the Union Pearson group. The Selection Committee declared Union Pearson the winner and so recommended to council. Not a single member of the Selection Committee breathed a word of this extraordinary procedure. The investigating judge termed Dill's votes “patently unreasonable”.

With this shocking information, in mid-2003 City Council decided nevertheless to proceed with the Union Pearson Group.

It appeared that everything was over except for signing of the legal documents. However, late in 2003 the city planning staff realized they had not undertaken a Master Plan for the Station required by a 1991 council policy. In the lull following the November municipal election, city staff called a public meeting to consider the draft Master Plan, deliberately deciding not to notify any members of the Save Union Station Committee. The City's lawyer claimed that she thought that our group probably was not interested in the matter.

This came to public attention in January 2004 when city staff reported to city council on the meeting, The report was titled a “rezoning”, ensuring the words Master Plan were not on the committee agenda. This led to another round of accusations about the impropriety of staff actions.

It was then seen that the staff's draft Master Plan did not touch the important issues of any redevelopment, the same issues that had been omitted with Union Pearson's proposals for the Station: it said nothing about improving and widening the platforms, building a new roof over the tracks to replace the unattractive and grimy roof, or require escalators between the concourses and the platforms, instead asking everyone to climb 41 stairs. City politicians considered hiring outside consultants to do a proper Master Plan.

Shortly thereafter city staff reported that Union Pearson was making unreasonable financial demands because of the delay, and recommended that the deal with Union Pearson should be cancelled altogether. It appeared finally things had unraveled, particularly since this recommendation came forward under a new mayor - Mayor David Miller had been elected in November 2003 saying he was going to sweep city hall clean.

However, in a private meeting in June 2004 City Council unexpectedly agreed to signed a 100 year contract with the Union Pearson Group. It then agreed to retain a consultant to complete a Master Plan - a backwards way of proceeding, for sure, but that is what happened.

The consultants' Master Plan came before Council in December 2004. The consultants followed the same pattern as did city staff and Union Pearson – there are no requirements in their Plan to improve and widen the platforms, or to build a new roof, or to require escalator connections between the platforms and concourses. Instead, their Master Plan outlines cosmetic improvements to the historical parts of the station and to the exterior areas around the station, leaving the guts of the station - the platforms, roof and stairs - as they now are, effectively ensuring that no change will take place to these important elements during the next generation or two. City Council patted itself on the back with what a good job it had done and approved the Master Plan, confirming the 100 year lease to the Union Pearson Group.

This is one of the saddest episodes in the city's history in the last few decades.

The full story is noted in the Bulletins found on the Save Union Station website, www.saveunionstation.ca .