Waterfront soon to support more uses

October 20, 2006
By Danielle Milley Staff Writer

PICKERING -- The University of Toronto might soon be setting up shop on Frenchman's Bay.
The Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the U of T Scarborough campus is interested in using part of a house on the western spit as a base for environmental research and public education.

"This particular location would give us a site that is very different (from our campus)," said Donald Cormack, chairman of the department of the house on Beachpoint Promenade.

In a letter to Ward 1 Regional Councillor Maurice Brenner at the beginning of the month, Mr. Cormack said the facility they have in mind would support interdisciplinary field research of the faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. It would also provide the opportunity for school groups to come and learn.

"Public education, in my mind, is an important element of this," he said.

Coun. Brenner said the Waterfront Co-ordinating Committee, of which he is the chairman, is interested in an environmental learning centre.

"I was ecstatic," he said of receiving the letter. "It was something that we've talked about for a long time. To have the potential to have a program of that magnitude in the City of Pickering speaks volumes."

The property is owned by the City of Pickering and Toronto and Region Conservation, so using it as a community and educational space would come at no cost to the taxpayer, he said.

"It fits 100 per cent in with the vision for the waterfront," Coun. Brenner said.

As a research base, the principle focus of activity would be on surface and ground waters, sediments, soils, and the aquatic ecology of the Pickering-area watershed and waterfront, said Mr. Cormack in his letter.

Coun. Brenner said the building would not be sold to the University of Toronto, but rather there would be partners who use the space; the Rotary Club of Pickering has also expressed interest.
"It's not giving it away, it's not selling it," he said. "It's looking for community partners so it can be used with minimal (financial) impact."

City staff will work with the community partners over the following months and years to come up with a plan for the best use of the building.

Another building on Pickering's eastern waterfront was also the subject of a Waterfront Co-ordinating Committee recommendation. A heritage property that sits on the future expansion site of the Duffin Creek water pollution control plant (owned by the regions of York and Durham) is to be saved and moved closer to the Waterfront Trail.

The committee has talked about using the building for a nautical museum.

"These are two fantastic opportunities at no cost to taxpayers that are close to reality," Coun. Brenner said.

The exact use of the heritage building still needs to be decided upon in the next term of council.