The Globe and Mail

A couple of weeks ago, Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. (TWRC) held a rather timid public launch down at Cherry Beach for the master plan of Lake Ontario Park. It was not a secret event — about 60 citizens showed up — but it might as well have been secret, for the zero oomph and fanfare TWRC put into it. What made this meeting seem surprisingly low-key, among other things, was the contrast between its small ambitions and the largeness of its topics. The making of the master plan, a $1-million design and consultative process spread over 14 months, will spell out the future for 500 acres of Toronto's priceless waterfront between Cherry Beach and Leslie Street. This fact alone should make Toronto sit up and take notice. But after this swath of wetlands, shoreline, thicket and forest is stabilized and rejuvenated — the budget for start-up work is $24-million — the 500-acre patch will become part of the thousand-acre Lake Ontario Park. This new front yard for Toronto, which could be magnificent, will embrace new and existing parkland and boardwalks from Cherry Beach and Tommy Thomson Park eastward to the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant.