Toronto Waterfront Power Grab — Exhibition Place, Convention Centre & Billy Bishop

The Exhibition Place Land Grab (November 2025): Exhibition Place is a 192-acre event and public space venue on the waterfront, directly adjacent to Ontario Place. It is owned and governed by the City of Toronto — a City of Toronto Act agency with a board of city councillors. In November 2025, the Ford government buried amendments to the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act (ROPA) inside a budget omnibus bill, Bill 68. The changes would allow Exhibition Grounds to be designated as part of the Ontario Place site, giving the province power over decisions regarding the sale and alteration of land and buildings on the Exhibition Place site — land it does not own.

Minister Stan Cho's office insisted: "We are not taking over Exhibition Place." Deputy Mayor and Exhibition Place Board chair Ausma Malik said the province had not shared details with the city and that if the amendment was what it looked like, it was "not acceptable." The Exhibition Place CEO said any unilateral provincial move to seize the site "must be challenged." NDP MPP Chris Glover called it "an unconscionable land grab." The legislation passed. The province has maintained it has no current plans to exercise the new powers — while retaining the legal authority to do so.

The Lake Ontario Convention Centre (March 2026): On March 2, 2026, Ford teased a "spectacular" new convention centre announcement "coming shortly." On March 6, he confirmed he was considering filling in part of Lake Ontario — between Humber Bay Park and Ontario Place — to create new land for a 2-million-square-foot facility, nearly three times the size of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Ford called it a future cause of "shock and awe" and compared it favourably to Chicago's McCormick Place.

There is no formal site. There has been no environmental assessment. There is no cost estimate beyond Ford saying it will cost "a few billion dollars." The City of Toronto, Exhibition Place, and the office of the city councillor for the waterfront area were not consulted or alerted before the announcement. Exhibition Place CEO Dianne Young said her organization had "no knowledge" of any plans involving their site. Ford, asked whether Exhibition Place was the intended location, said "just stay tuned." The Metro Toronto Convention Centre — which the province's own Auditor General found is ranked 18th out of 21 comparable North American facilities and has caused $490 million in lost economic activity — continues to operate with no confirmed replacement plan, timeline, or funding.

The Billy Bishop Airport Takeover (March 2026): On approximately March 10, 2026, Ford announced the province "will be taking over" the City of Toronto's stake in Billy Bishop Airport on the Toronto Island. The city receives approximately $5 million per year from the airport. Under Ontario's Expropriations Act, the province can take municipal land within six months of a formal objection. Ford has expressed interest in extending the runway to accommodate jets — over Mayor Olivia Chow's objection on noise grounds. The city was not consulted before the announcement. Three major waterfront assets — Exhibition Place, the Ontario Place/Lake Ontario shoreline, and Billy Bishop Airport — are now under formal provincial control or subject to announced provincial plans, across a three-month period, without a comprehensive planning process, environmental review, or public engagement with the city that contains them all.

Councillor Paula Fletcher described the pattern directly: Ford is "using all his provincial powers in the worst way." Councillor Josh Matlow said Ford is "handing tax dollars out to his friends while blowing billions on an unnecessary convention centre on a magical island." Interim Liberal leader John Fraser called the lake infill plan a "fantasy island." NDP leader Marit Stiles said Ford is spending money on "vanity projects" while grocery prices and emergency room wait times worsen. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner called the plan "a ridiculous idea." Mayor Olivia Chow said she is "prepared to work with the province" on convention centre investment but has not seen a formal plan and does not support jets at Billy Bishop.

What makes the pattern notable is not that any single decision is necessarily wrong in isolation — Toronto does need a larger convention centre, and provincial investment in waterfront infrastructure can serve a public good. What is notable is the method: unilateral announcement, without consultation, without feasibility study, and without a credible accountability structure for $2-billion-plus spending decisions. The Ontario Place Therme deal — now the template for how Ford approaches waterfront redevelopment — was awarded without competition, to a company whose VP was Ford's own former senior policy adviser, at a cost of $2.2 billion in provincial infrastructure spending for a private waterpark on a 95-year lease.

The convention centre announcement has no tender, no environmental assessment, no confirmed site, no engineering study on the feasibility of filling in Lake Ontario, and no federal or municipal approval. Filling in Lake Ontario would require federal navigation and environmental approvals under the Canadian Navigable Waters Act and the Impact Assessment Act. None of those processes have been initiated. The announcement is, as of March 2026, a press conference with no plan behind it — coming from the same government that spent $2.2 billion in infrastructure for a European spa company on the basis of a deal signed before the company had built a single facility at the scale it described.