City hall staff upbraided as yacht club thrown ‘lifeline’
· Toronto Sun
Toronto’s only river yacht club can shape up or ship out.
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The city’s general government committee, after a long, terse debate last week, decided to temporarily spare the Toronto Humber Yacht Club, which not long ago appeared doomed.
“We’re not going to take this lifeline for granted,” Wilson DaSilva, vice-commodore of the boating club, told the Toronto Sun .
“We have a place here, this is our home, but we’re not ignorant to the concerns that people have, so … what is it that we can help with the preservation and protection of the Humber River?”
The club, not far south of the Old Mill subway station, has been on the river for 70 years, on land leased from the city. Word came down this year that the club would close, with city hall citing ecological concerns — while the local councillor, Amber Morley, focused on compliance issues.
That seemingly confused approach was repeated at last Monday’s committee meeting, to the frustration of Michael Thompson. At one point, the Scarborough councillor, who sits on the committee, told city hall’s bureaucrats it was “not their finest hour.”
Thompson and his colleagues recommended city council, at its March meeting, allow the club to run month to month, and for the committee to hear back about any apparent problems in June.
“We’re not taking this opportunity for granted. We’ve heard the concerns and I’m glad that the city has heard ours,” DaSilva told the Sun .
His club is lobbying councillors and making changes to its operations. It is pledging to increase its community outreach, double its river cleanup program from two days a year to four, and allow the public to launch canoes and kayaks from its site.
DaSilva also said the club is banning Jet Skis outright, rather than phasing them out as had planned.
“It seemed to be a bull’s-eye for us,” he said. “It just drew too much negative attention, which got us into this hot water.”
City hall’s ‘secret’
What’s unclear is who brought that hot water to a boil in the first place.
Morley, who is not a member of the committee, appeared at last Monday’s meeting to prod city bureaucrats for details about any “contravention of the lease” by the yacht club.
Though he would pause to insist he holds Morley in high regard, the scolding that Thompson unleashed was blistering. Even when committee chairman Paul Ainslie told him he had gone too far, he refused to back down.
The committee was there to vote on a report that described environmental concerns but made no mention of lease troubles, Thompson said.
“We’re expected to read these reports, expected to make major decisions, yet this information is not contained in the report,” Thompson said. “It would’ve been really helpful, at least to me, to have had those details in this report. Perhaps I would’ve come to another conclusion.
“I’m at a point now where the conclusion where I’ve arrived at, I’m going to stick with it because I’m not sure what the secret is or what was the purpose of not providing that information in the report, because it would’ve been extremely helpful. Is there a reason why it wasn’t contained?”
He added: “This is a club that has a 70-year history, and yes, maybe there’s bad behaviour and so on and so forth, but at least we as decision-makers should’ve been informed of that. I don’t have that, and I don’t think it’s appropriate. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous, unfair to us to make a decision that is so important. What is it that staff’s hiding? Why?”
The vice-chairman of the committee, Stephen Holyday, demanded specifics as to who first sought for the lease to expire, and why the environmental concerns can’t be addressed without shuttering the yacht club.
His heart on his sleeve, Holyday said his grandfather, a Navy veteran, was a member.
“When I look at the report, the rationale is as thin as the edge of this paper, and I apologize that I was curt in my questions, because in earnest I have tried and tried to figure out why they’ve done this, and I keep getting conflicting information back,” he said.
Councillor: ‘Bad faith’
Gord Perks, the councillor for a neighbouring ward, isn’t on the committee but addressed it over the phone. He said there are legitimate environmental issues related to fuel storage, and the club has encroached onto Toronto and Region Conservation Authority land.
“City staff have demonstrated very clearly that they have had repeated attempts to enter into conversations with this club, and that the club only very recently accepted that invitation. I think it’s bad to have a partner who makes claims that are false like this,” Perks said.
DaSilva had told the committee that an ecological plan was approved by his board, but members hadn’t yet voted on it with the club’s future in limbo. Perks said since that plan wasn’t shared with the city and wouldn’t meet the TRCA’s standards, that was “kind of a bad faith answer on their part.”
DaSilva, speaking to the Sun , focused on the support the yacht club got. His club caters to a blue-collar clientele, and one member who addressed the committee shed tears while describing what the organization means to his family.
“Part of me is feeling very grateful and happy that 70 years of history hasn’t been erased and lost,” DaSilva said. “This is a bit emotional for us.”