Premier Doug Ford has said he “believes in working collaboratively together” after Toronto’s new mayor said she could take his government to court over its Ontario Place redevelopment plans.
Ford said it was “disappointing” that Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, elected on June 26, was talking about her opposition to his plans to build a large spa on the Toronto site.
Asked previously about a strategy laid out in a provincial document to expropriate city-owned land at Ontario Place, Chow vowed to take the province to court.
“Expropriation is a blunt instrument,” Chow said at an unrelated news conference.
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“What we don’t want is to waste a lot of money in court, but that is available,” Chow added. “Hopefully we don’t get to a stage where we have two levels of government seeing each other in court.”
Speaking at Winnipeg’s meeting of Canada’s premiers, Ford said housing affordability was the key issue people in Ontario care about, not Ontario Place.
“On a level of one to 100, for people around our entire province, I’ll tell you they won’t be talking about Ontario Place,” he said.
“They’ll talk about affordability: how they can pay their bills, pay their mortgages, that’s what’s important to people.”
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