Following receipt of the Commission's report the Province established the Waterfront Regeneration Trust as the body to coordinate implementation of the recommendations.
The Trust has no regulatory power or authority. It is simply a broker or facilitator. It seeks to achieve consensus on what needs to be done and who does what on the waterfront. In turn, it relies on its public and private partners for project implementation and construction.
The decision to establish a coordinating agency rather than another development corporation was based on several factors. Firstly, the ecosystem principles recommended by the Commission stress openness, inclusion, and connectedness among all stakeholders on the waterfront, both public and private. Secondly, the Toronto situation had been made more complex and difficult by the fact that Canada's largest metropolitan city had four levels of government operative on the waterfront; the federal government; the province, regional municipal and local municipal government, making inter-governmental cooperation a major challenge. Furthermore, each level of government owned strategic waterfront properties being managed and operated at arm 5 length by single purpose agencies. Finally, all levels of government had reached the limits of their fiscal capacity and had run out of tax room in the early 1990's. No government was in a position to establish and provide substantial capital funds to a traditional development corporation.
Nor was the private sector in a position to pick up the slack. Recession had come to Canada in 1989/90 and it was to last three or four years. Ontario and Toronto especially had been particularly hard hit. In the development industry major developers were unable to survive the 40% fall in real estate values and the disappearance of the market.
So, for waterfront regeneration to occur a new approach had to be found; one that would build on partnerships as the means to move forward, not on a single authoritarian body.
Hence, the creation of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.
Today, the Trust is a provincial crown corporation arm's length from government with a small board of directors; seven citizens representing the environmental, economic and community dimensions of waterfront regeneration. There is a core staff of thirteen, supplemented by a dozen contractual employees. Like WAVE, the Trust uses secondments (from three months to two years in duration) from government departments, academia, business and community organizations, to augment its own skills and experience, and to develop and extend networks and understanding. In Japanese terminology, the Trust is in the third sector.
3d. Impressions of Waterfront Development in Japan
