Ford says Toronto has ‘one of the worst’ convention centres in the world, teases billion dollar rebuild

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says a major overhaul of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will likely cost taxpayers “a few billion dollars” as his government sets its sights on the province’s next big infrastructure project.

After calling the facility “one of the worst convention centres anywhere in the world,” Ford visited the convention centre on Thursday night for a Toronto Region Board of Trade dinner, where he repeated his comments about the taxpayer-owned building.

“The Toronto Convention Centre, it’s had its life,” Ford told a surprised audience. “It’s a terrible Convention Centre.”

The comment was met with raised eyebrows, especially by those working at the convention centre where the event was being held, prompting the premier to quickly say it was “no one’s fault in this room.”

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which describes itself as a “globally acclaimed, premier choice for event planners,” is a Crown corporation of the Ontario government located beside the CN Tower in the heart of the downtown core.

Recently, however, the centre has struggled to fill the 442,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and, according to a review by Ontario’s Auditor General, lost 20 international conventions “because the conventions had outgrown the centre.”

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“Event planners we spoke to told us there was a shortage of meeting rooms and pre-function areas at MTCC,” the auditor said in a 2023 report, which highlighted that the post-pandemic occupancy rate stood at 54 per cent.

For Premier Doug Ford, the convention centre’s status also weighs heavily in the government’s decision.

“Do you know that out of 25 of the largest cities that have conventions, we’re in last place,” Ford told the audience at the convention centre on Thursday. “We’re going to go from number 24 up to number one.”

The premier also described his frustration with the size and layout of the current building.

“You go into the convention centre — you go up, you go down, you go up, you go down, you go across the street to the other building,” Ford said.

Discussions surrounding the renovation of the facility aren’t new.

In the 2023-24 annual report, MTCC Board Chair Justin Mooney said while talk of an overhaul had been put on hold in the wake of the pandemic, they were slowly being revived.

“One of the discussions put on “hold” in recent years involved plans for the complete redevelopment of the site occupied by the North Building of the Convention Centre,” the report stated. “Our landlord, Oxford Properties, has long been considering a major reconfiguration of the property, and MTCC expects to begin revisiting those plans with Oxford again.”

The Ford government is now promising to announce its plans later this year, potentially funded by Ontario taxpayers.

“It’ll be probably a few billion dollars, but just think of the people coming from all over the world,” Ford said.

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