Mark Lawson

Between November 2025 and March 2026, the Ford government announced plans to provincialize three of Toronto's major waterfront assets in rapid succession: legislative changes to seize Exhibition Place (192 acres of City of Toronto land); a proposal to fill in part of Lake Ontario to build a 2-million-square-foot convention centre (the city was not consulted); and a unilateral takeover of Billy Bishop Airport. None of these announcements were preceded by consultation with the City of Toronto or its residents. The convention centre site remains unconfirmed, unfeasibility-studied, and unfunded. The Exhibition Place moves followed years of provincial encroachment on adjacent Ontario Place — a $2.2-billion redevelopment awarded, without competition, to a company whose VP of Communications was Doug Ford's own former Chief of Staff.

Moved directly from Ford's innermost circle — Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of Policy — to become VP of Communications for Therme, the company that received a no-tender 95-year lease and $2.2B in provincial infrastructure investment at Ontario Place. While Lawson worked for Therme, his wife served as Chief of Staff for Cabinet Office. In October 2024 he was named in an NDP Integrity Commissioner affidavit seeking information about how Therme was selected.

Doug Ford is using Bill 5's Special Economic Zone powers to seize the City of Toronto's land at Billy Bishop Airport and force through a jet expansion banned by the 1983 tripartite agreement — bypassing municipal consent, blocking thousands of planned Portlands homes, and benefiting a private terminal owner whose lobbyist is a former senior Ford aide.

After leaving Ford's office (where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of Policy 2019–2021), Lawson was retained by Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners — the private consortium that owns the Billy Bishop passenger terminal — to lobby the provincial government on the airport's future expansion plans. Simultaneously, Lawson served as VP of Communications at Therme Group Canada, which holds the 95-year lease at the adjacent Ontario Place development. His dual lobbying role ties together Ford's two most controversial Toronto waterfront projects.

Doug Ford's government introduced Bill 110 to seize all of Little Norway Park — a children's playground and waterfront green space beside two schools and a daycare — to expand Billy Bishop Airport into a jet hub, with no plan, no environmental assessment, and no guarantee the park won't become a parking lot.

After leaving Ford's office as Deputy Chief of Staff (2019–2021), Lawson was retained by Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners — the J.P. Morgan-backed private consortium that owns the Billy Bishop passenger terminal — to lobby the provincial government on airport expansion. His simultaneous role as VP of Communications for Therme Group Canada (the adjacent Ontario Place development) connects him to both of Ford's major Toronto waterfront projects. Bill 110 delivers a direct windfall to Nieuport by enabling the jet expansion Nieuport has sought since acquiring the terminal.