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Toronto Expo 2025

KWT sent this out today:
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Dear Friends and Supporters of Expo 2025 Canada
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What a journey we have taken together. Expo is an inspirational event and so many of us have been inspired.

When Prime Minster Justin Trudeau declared at an UN-sponsored climate change conference after his election that "Canada is back," we were hoping this also meant that Toronto is back—that our city was ready to seize the extraordinary opportunity of hosting the largest event on the plant, Expo 2025.

But as you are now aware, Mayor John Tory and his Executive Committee voted on October 26 to "not support the development of a bid to host Expo 2025 in Toronto." Their decision was made after hearing five hours of deputations where each and every speaker spoke intelligently, urgently and passionately on how Expo 2025 would be an accelerating and exceptional city-building pursuit for Toronto.

For those of us who have been working hard to bring the World Expo to Toronto, we were not surprised when city staff stated in their Expo 2025 Feasibility Considerations report: "Expo 2025 has the potential to be the largest and most impactful economic and cultural event held in Canada since Expo '67."

Despite building a solid business case with tangible benefits that are irrefutable and convening an energized and diverse citizen coalition for Expo 2025, we must accept the stark reality that a bid from Toronto is not winnable without the active support of the Mayor.

A Mayor's enthusiasm, soft power and tenacity has to be on full display when securing Expo support and funding from the other orders of government. The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the organization that sanctions the Expo, has made it clear that unwavering political leadership and support from the host city's Mayor is most important when competing internationally for member nation votes.

The Expo 2025 Canada team accepts that we don't have Mayor Tory's support for an Expo 2025 bid and as such we will be putting aside our current campaign efforts at this upcoming City Council. Despite this difficult decision, we remain committed to bringing Expo back to Canada. We remain hopeful that Mayor Tory can take inspiration from all of you and choose to lead us in a bid for Expo 2030.

The effort to bring Expo 2025 to Toronto has brought together an incredibly diverse coalition—leaders from the arts and business, community groups and the labour movement. Truly we had the widest group of thought leaders join the pro-Expo movement--from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation to the entire board of the Toronto Stock Exchange, 30 start-up companies including youth entrepreneurs in Rexdale, as well as social innovators and immigration settlement services in Scarborough and the arts communities of North York. It was breathtaking. It was the face of Toronto.

It takes a truly transformative event to bring together this cross-section of our City. This is the magic of Expo 2025. I want to see this magic continue. We cannot lose the spark that has been ignited in so many through Expo 2025. The imagination that has been lit by Expo is what Toronto needs for 'Big Thinking' to happen. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be reaching out to you to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can transform this energy and enthusiasm into an ongoing discussion about big ideas for our city and country.
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pman said:
Yes, because we have to drop a couple billion on stuff of absolutely no value in order to organize ourselves to spend money on things we actually need.
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You do realize that those "couple of billion" are for those things that we actually need and not to organize the Expo...right? Of course not. You're just making up whatever suits your argument.

Expo would be a catalyst to build the infrastructure that we already need but give us a deadline and bring all levels of government together to accomplish it. Naturalizing the Don, waterfront transit and neighbourhood foundation infrastructure in the Portlands are all necessary and recommended investments with significant payoff. The difference is that by building them as part of an international event that directly contributes to the economy, those costs are offset.

If you had read the report, you'd know that participating nations are responsible for building their own pavilions and that common infrastructure and operating costs would be more than covered by revenue.

All that said, while I was excited for 2025, I think that 2030 is more realistic but we gotta get started now instead of waiting again until it's too late.
 
MetroMan said:
You do realize that those "couple of billion" are for those things that we actually need and not to organize the Expo...right? Of course not. You're just making up whatever suits your argument.

Expo would be a catalyst to build the infrastructure that we already need but give us a deadline and bring all levels of government together to accomplish it. Naturalizing the Don, waterfront transit and neighbourhood foundation infrastructure in the Portlands are all necessary and recommended investments with significant payoff. The difference is that by building them as part of an international event that directly contributes to the economy, those costs are offset.

If you had read the report, you'd know that participating nations are responsible for building their own pavilions and that common infrastructure and operating costs would be more than covered by revenue.

All that said, while I was excited for 2025, I think that 2030 is more realistic but we gotta get started now instead of waiting again until it's too late.
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We absolutely need to get started now to shut down Expo 2030.
 
MetroMan said:
The difference is that by building them as part of an international event that directly contributes to the economy, those costs are offset.
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Bull.

MetroMan said:
If you had read the report, you'd know that participating nations are responsible for building their own pavilions and that common infrastructure and operating costs would be more than covered by revenue.

All that said, while I was excited for 2025, I think that 2030 is more realistic but we gotta get started now instead of waiting again until it's too late.
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If the argument is that compelling, why did it get turned down? How 'bout we just build out the Portlands on a schedule that suits Toronto?
 
Ha ha, a schedule that suits Toronto equates to walls of cheaply built, poorly designed condos and postage stamp parks that add up to less than the sum of their parts, underserviced by transit. That's right, aim for mediocrity!
 
Sounds more like a classic case of Brazilian governmental incompetence that failed to implement a follow-up plan after the Olympics.
 
I don't think that would happen here, we could simply design the stadiums and exhibit halls to turn into condos after the event.
 
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