Modern house on the Island

[Roadwolf611]

Funny thing is, the Toronto Island used to be a provincial park.

Every Provincial park (senior) warden who retires gets a piece of land on a provincial park to call their home and they are allowed to retire there. They were allowed to choose any ontario provincial park to retire in.

Toronto Island park was a popular place and because it was so close to the city many wardens chose to retire there. Until it was at the point where the parkland was getting used up too quickly and the provincial park eventually gave the land up to the city.

I heard this from a friend of mine who is quite familar with the provincial park system.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

The waiting list to get a house on the islands is about 20 years...

 

[Archivistower]

Roadwold, none of that sounds right to me, but I'm unlikely to do the research to prove it one way or another. I believe thhe island lands were privately owned until the Metro level of government was formed in the 1950s when they expropriated. I don't ever recall hearing that it was a provincial park.

I am pretty certain that provincial park wardens do not have the option you indicated, that sounds very 1880's to me, and would make no sense at all in our current environment. I wonder if it happened in a few places in the kind of ad-hoc, aw shucks, he's a friend of mine way that Ontario was administered back when. These days, no way.

 

[Roadwolf611]

Yeah, it seems odd to me too, but my source is usually pretty accurate. So I'll stand by his suggestion untill someone can prove him wrong

However what you describe with the lease from the city is something I have also heard. It could be that the island was a park before the city owned it, and that back in the early days of the park system wardens were allowed to do that. (explaining why some retired wardens still live in houses in algonquin park and such)

I shall look into it myself. I'll let ya know what I find.

 

[Observer Walt]

Toronto Island was never a provincial park; it has been under the control of the City / Metro for decades. The present lease arrangement was put in place in the early 1990s, to resolve the ongoing problem of people who were living on Wards Island and Algonquin Island without any security of tenure. Now that they have long term leases (on the land), they can invest in upgrading their houses. Many of the houses which used to be outright slums are now much upgraded or replaced entirely. Some financial institutions are willing to give mortgages to facilitate this.

Re: provincial parks, I doubt that retired park wardens have the right to live in parks any more. This may have been the case many years ago. Most parks do not have any residences. Some cottages exist in Algonquin, but will be phased out as their leases expire.

 

[adma]

Unless it's been rebuilt, Algonquin Island has a house that most intrigues me: a 40s/50s bungalow that looks like it belongs off the Scarborough Bluffs, or somewhere like that (on the E side, near the yacht club entrance) Totally un-cutesy, un-granola...