Ontario Premier Doug Ford is teasing a major overhaul of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as his government’s next big infrastructure project, promising to announce details sometime this year.
At an unrelated event Thursday morning, Ford complained Toronto currently has “one of the worst convention centres anywhere in the world” and hinted he wanted to overhaul and potentially expand it.
The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is a Crown corporation of the Ontario government located beside the CN Tower in the heart of downtown.
It describes itself as “globally acclaimed and a premier choice for event planners,” having hosted more than 22,000 events.
Ford, however, took a different view. He said the space was outdated, small and failing to attract business.
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“We’re going to tackle that next. I won’t get into it, but we’re last in convention centres around the world,” he told reporters. “Conventions aren’t coming here because we’re last place. So we’re going to build something iconic, world-class.”
The premier described his frustration with the size and layout of the current building.
“You go into the convention centre — you go up, you go down, you go up, you go down, you go across the street to the other building,” Ford said.
“And it’s only on six, seven acres. Stay tuned, folks, another world-class announcement is coming right here to Toronto. We’re going to go from last to first in the world.”
Ford made his comments as he unveiled designs and the awarding of a contract for the new science centre at Ontario Place.
The premier has also pushed other legacy-style infrastructure projects like the Ontario Line and, more recently, a tunnel under Highway 401.
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