1.
West Don Lands
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The West Don Lands are the site of a neighbourhood under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area is bordered by the Don River, King Street, Parliament Street and it is 80 hectares in size. A former industrial area, the area is being rebuilt as a mixed-use neighbourhood, after the purchase of Toronto, the area was set aside as a Crown Reserve when York was founded. The area from Berkeley east to the Don River and north to Queen Street was designated for a city park. It was sold off to developers in the 1830s to finance the construction of a new city hospital. The Corktown community grew, and was home to working class Irish immigrants, to the south, the Gooderham and Worts distillery was founded, and it dumped its waste in the area. It kept cattle and pigs in the area to feed off the distillery waste, railways came to Toronto in the 1850s, entering the Don Lands along the Don River from the north, and across the Don River from the east. The Don River was straightened and the Taddle Creek which ran through the area was buried, the Davies Company and Gooderhams were prosperous in the first half of the twentieth century, but both sites were in decline. Davies merged with other meat packers and moved the bulk of its operations to the west of Toronto, Gooderhams was merged with the Hiram Walker distillery and moved much of its production to the Hiram Walker facility out of town. The Davies Company closed in the 1980s, and Gooderhams closed in 1991, by the 1980s, the area was heavily polluted and not a desirable location for industry which sought locations for large one-storey facilities in the suburbs. The area declined and much of the land abandoned as it required expensive clean-up before conversion to other uses, another factor against conversion to other uses was that the lands were floodplains and as such could not be the site of residences. In 1987, the area was expropriated by the Ontario government at the urging of Toronto mayor Art Eggleton, the city proposed creating a new community of 14,000 called Ataratiri to solve Torontos pressing subsidized housing crisis. The Ataratiri project was to have consisted of a mix of subsidized and market priced housing, the name for the project was taken from the Wyandot word for supported by clay in reference to the clay soil of the area. After investing a considerable amount of money purchasing and clearing the site, the industrial history meant the soil was highly polluted and needed expensive cleanup before any residents could live there. The risk of flooding from the Don River also required a barrier to be erected. By 1992, the city and province had already invested some $350 million, the real estate market had also collapsed, making any private investment unlikely. The new Ontario government of Bob Rae thus decided to cancel the project in 1992, a number of plans were advanced for the land. For a time the government considered selling it to a developer who wanted to build a harness racing facility
2.
Waterfront Toronto
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Waterfront Toronto, is an organization administering revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront in Canada. Actual development of the projects is done by other agencies, primarily private corporations, the projects include a series of wavedeck walkways and gathering places designed by West 8 and DTAH. The task force, headed by financier Robert Fung, reported in March 2000 and it estimated the total cost of revitalization at $5 billion in public investment and a further $7 billion in private sector investment. Provide a clean environment by improving quality, cleaning up contaminated soils. Establishment of a separate from government to oversee the revitalization. Source, Our Toronto Waterfront, Gateway to the New Canada, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation was formed in 2001 to oversee and lead waterfront renewal. It has subsequently been renamed Waterfront Toronto, the agency is jointly funded by the three levels of government. The CEO is John W. Campbell, formerly an executive at Brookfield Properties. The organization is governed by a board of directors, Mark Wilson - is an executive with IBM, william Charnetski - is an executive with AstraZeneca Canada Inc. Jack Cockwell - is an executive with Brookfield Asset Management Inc, sue Dabarno - is an executive with Richardson Partners Financial. Kevin Garland - is an executive with the National Ballet of Canada Janet Graham - is an independent businesswoman, david Johnson - former member of Ontario Parliament, former provincial cabinet minister. Ross McGregor - former executive of Toronto Region Research Alliance, david Miller - former Mayor of Toronto. John Sandusky - retired chartered accountant and former executive of Sandusky Properties, Corus Quay, originally named First Waterfront Place, is an 8 storey commercial office tower located on a 2. 5-acre Toronto waterfront site. Corus Quay will be Corus Entertainments new Toronto headquarters, consolidating its 10 locations and 1,200 employees into one site, the building is a collaboration between the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and the Toronto Economic Development Corporation. The East Bayfront Precinct, where the building is located, is intended to be an important public destination as well as provide a range of housing, underpass Park, inaugurated on August 2,2012, is the 18th public space built or revitalized by Waterfront Toronto since 2005. The development achieved LEED Gold status for the projects environmental sustainability, Waterfront Trail Portlands East Bayfront The Don River West Don Lands Gardiner Expressway Transit City WATERFRONToronto Official web site Toronto Waterfront - The Waterfront Trail
3.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
4.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
5.
Don River (Ontario)
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The Don River is a watercourse in southern Ontario, that empties into Lake Ontario, at Toronto Harbour. Its mouth was just east of the grid of the town of York, Upper Canada. Of the various watercourses that drained Toronto, the Don, the Humber River, the Don is formed from two rivers, the East and West Branches, that meet about 7 kilometres north of Lake Ontario while flowing southward into the lake. The area below the confluence is known as the lower Don, the Don is also joined at the confluence by a third major branch, Taylor-Massey Creek. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is responsible for managing the river, humans first arrived in the Don River area approximately 12,500 years BP, most likely as nomadic hunters. While there is archaeological evidence in the Don valley itself. The most significant recorded find is known as the Withrow Site and it was discovered in 1886 during road building just east of Riverdale Park. It contained human remains and other dating back to about 5000 years BP. It is unclear whether the Don River had a native Canadian name, in 1788, Alexander Aitkin, an English surveyor who worked in southern Ontario, referred to the Don River as Ne cheng qua kekonk. Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, reported in her diary that another name used was Wonscotanach and this is an Anishnaabe phrase meaning the river coming from the back burnt grounds which could refer to an earlier forest fire in the poplar plains to the north. The name Don River was given by Lt. Gov. Simcoe because the wide valley reminded him of the River Don in Yorkshire, after the founding of York in 1793, several mills were constructed along the lower Don. One of the first was at Todmorden Mills and these mills initially turned out lumber, flour and paper products. By the 1850s, there were more than 50 mills along the Don, the Lower Don was becoming an industrial setting. Petroleum storage facilities, poultry and pork processing plants were constructed along the banks of the Don, in 1879, the Don Valley Brick Works opened. Polluted effluent from factories and the growing city nearby was turning the Don. In the 1880s, the part of the Don south of the former Winchester St. bridge was straightened and placed in a channel to create additional harbour space. Known as The Don Improvement Project, the river was also supposed to divert the polluted waters into the Ashbridges Bay marsh. This proved unsuccessful so the mouth was turned 90 degrees west where it empties into the inner harbour and this short extension of the harbour is known as the Keating Channel
6.
William Davies Company
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William Davies Company was a pork processing and packing company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At one time, it was the largest pork packer in the British Empire, one of Torontos longstanding nicknames, Hogtown, is attributable to the millions of pigs processed annually by the William Davies Company. William Davies, born in 1831 in Wallingford, England, emigrated to Canada in 1854, and soon set up a stall in Torontos St. Lawrence Market. Davies rented a facility at Front and Frederick Streets, a few blocks east of St. Lawrence Market, soon, he was shipping millions of pounds annually of salt-cured pork. The William Davies building at 145 Front Street East, later occupied by the J. & J. Safeworks, in addition to curing pork for export, he began slaughtering and processing hogs, and his business became the first continuous/moving rail hog-slaughtering facility in Canada. In 1891, the new plant was the first in Canada to feature an artificial refrigeration unit, in many ways, Davies was responsible for establishing the modern Canadian pork industry. By the 1890s, it was supplying half of the entire Canadian bacon trade with Britain. The companys agent in Britain, John Wheeler Bennett, was known as the Bismarck of the bacon trade, in 1891, the business was reorganized as the William Davies Company Limited. By mid-1917, the majority of the shares were held by Sir Joseph Flavelle, the company was the first Canadian food producer to establish its own chain of retail meat and grocery stores, the first major chain of food stores in Canada. By the 1880s, it operated 84 retail outlets across Ontario, the firm was quick to open stores in fast growing areas along streetcar lines, Flavelle was quoted as saying where the trolley goes it fair to assume that we shall follow shortly. The company was successful during the First World War. The managers of William Davies were routinely accused of being war profiteers, the federal government established a Royal Commission by Order in Council in July 1917 to investigate both the William Davies Company and Matthews-Blackwell Company Limited. By 1920, the highly profitable wartime commodity markets had fallen, food producers rushed to sell off inventory at reduced prices, causing prices to drop faster and further. The William Davies Company was caught flat-footed by the downturn, and was facing financial difficulties by the mid-1920s, the downturn in the pork trade led to a merger between William Davies Company, Gunns Limited and Harris Abattoir Co. in 1927. William Davies Company was the foremost among the merging firms, the newly merged entity was named Canada Packers, and constituted Canadas largest meat processing and packing company. Not only did the merger improve the position of the constituent firms. Eventually, the Canada Packers operations were consolidated, with the meat packing, the former William Davies Company facilities by the Don River were first converted into a cold storage facility and soap works, and were eventually sold. Canada Packers later merged in 1991 with Maple Leaf Mills, a producer of flour-based foods, William Davies died in 1921, after injuries sustained by being butted by a goat
7.
Government of Ontario
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The Government of Ontario, or more formally Her Majestys Government of Ontario, is the provincial government of the province of Ontario, Canada. Its powers and structure are set out in the Constitution Act,1867, the civil service that manages and delivers government policies, programs, and services is called the Ontario Public Service. The province of Ontario is governed by a legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The provinces head of government, known as the Premier of Ontario is appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, the Premier, invariably the leader of a political party represented in the Legislative Assembly, selects members of the Cabinet, who are also appointed by the Lieutenant Governor. The Premier has usually been the leader of the party holding the largest number of seats in the Legislative Assembly, due to the location of the Ontario Legislative Building on the grounds of Queens Park, the Ontario government is frequently referred to by the metonym Queens Park. The Ontario Public Service was named one of Canadas Top 100 Employers by Macleans newsmagazine in 2009, the Lieutenant Governor is appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada. The legislative powers in the lie with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The premier and other ministers in the Cabinet are also members of, and responsible to, for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the Ontario government planned to spend C$127,600,000,000, including a deficit of C$11,700,000,000. As of March 31,2014 the total Ontario debt stood at $295.80 billion
8.
Bob Rae
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Robert Keith Bob Rae, PC CC OOnt QC is a Canadian lawyer, negotiator, public speaker, and former politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. He was previously leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and the 21st Premier of Ontario, Rae was a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament from 1978 to 1982. Then he moved to politics, serving as leader of the Ontario NDP from February 7,1982. While in office, he brought forward a number of initiatives that were unpopular with many traditional NDP supporters, Raes subsequent disagreement with the leftward direction of the NDP led him to resign his membership and join the Liberals. In 2006, he was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada and he had originally been a Liberal in the 1970s before joining the NDP. Rae returned to the Canadian House of Commons on March 31,2008, as a Liberal MP after winning a March 17,2008 and he was re-elected in the 2008 general election. Rae ran again as a candidate for the party leadership but withdrew on December 12,2008, on June 19,2013, Rae announced that he would resign from parliament in order to become chief negotiator for James Bay area First Nations in their negotiations with the provincial government. His resignation from parliament became effective July 31,2013, Rae joined Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP as a partner in February 2014. Rae sits as an advisor to Canadas Ecofiscal Commission, Rae was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents were Lois Esther and Saul Rae, an eminent Canadian career diplomat who had postings in Washington, Geneva, New York, Mexico, Raes paternal grandparents immigrated from Scotland, and his mother had English ancestry. Rae was raised as an Anglican, as an adult, he found out that his paternal grandfather was Jewish, and was from a family of Lithuanian immigrants to Scotland. Raes brother John A. Rae is a Vice-President of Power Corporation and he was also an adviser to Jean Chrétien when he was Indian Affairs Minister in 1968 and from 1993 until 2003 when Chrétien was Prime Minister. Raes younger brother, David, was diagnosed with cancer in 1987. Despite a bone marrow transplant from his brother, he died of leukemia in 1989 at age 32, Raes sister, Jennifer, worked for many years for the IMAX Corporation but has now retired. Rae learned of his familys Jewish origins in 1968, the revelation had a strong impact on him, he sought to explore his Jewish culture, dated Jewish girls exclusively and ultimately married a Jewish woman. Upon his marriage to Arlene Perly Rae, Rae agreed to raise his children in his wifes Jewish faith, Rae is a member of Holy Blossom Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Toronto. Rae attended Crichton Street Public School in Ottawa, Horace Mann Public School and Gordon Junior High School in Washington, D. C. and the International School of Geneva, Switzerland
9.
2015 Pan American Games
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The games were held from July 10 to 26,2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, preliminary rounds in certain events began on July 7,2015. These were the third Pan American games hosted by Canada, the Games were held at venues in Toronto and seventeen other Golden Horseshoe communities. The Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games were organized by the Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games. The Games hosted 6,132 athletes representing 41 National Olympic Committees in the Americas, marking the largest multi-sport event hosted in Canada, a record of 45% of competitors were women, the most ever for any multi-sport event. 364 events were contested in 36 sports, which included the 28 sports contested at the 2016 Summer Olympics, canoe slalom and golf made their Pan American Games debut, as well as womens competitions in baseball, C-1 canoe and rugby sevens. The Canadian Olympic Committee chose Toronto and the region as the Canadian candidate. No other Canadian city was given a chance to bid in a domestic race, Torontos interest in bidding came after failing to land the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Atlanta and Beijing respectively. On February 23,2009, Toronto City Council and Hamilton City Council approved the bid, the official bid book document was submitted to the Pan American Sports Organization on May 27,2009. PASO made a visit to Toronto between August 30 and 31,2009. The team analysed the candidate city features and provided its feedback back to voting members of PASO, the evaluation committee was headed by Julio Maglione, a member of the IOC representing Uruguay and the head of Fédération Internationale de Natation, the international swimming federation. After the visit Maglione said, Toronto has all the conditions to play host to the Pan American Games. Toronto won the bidding process to host the Pan and Parapan American Games by a vote of the Pan American Sports Organization on November 6,2009, at the PASO Session held in Guadalajara, the result was announced by PASO President Mario Vázquez Raña. Toronto faced two other finalists shortlisted Lima, Peru, and Bogotá, Colombia, Toronto earned 33 votes, while contesting candidate cities Lima and Bogotá received 11 and 7 votes, respectively. The 2015 Pan American Games used a mixture of new venues, existing and temporary facilities, after the Games, some of the new facilities will be reused in their games time form, while others will be resized. A total of 30 competition venues across 14 municipalities were used for competition, ten of these venues were newly built, while fifteen were renovated to stage the games. Toronto was one of the most populous cities in history to hold the Pan American Games, in July, Toronto has an average mean temperature of 22.3 °C and afternoon maximum average of 26. Torontos elevation is 112 m above sea level, the opening and closing ceremonies were held at Pan-Am Ceremonies Venue, or simply Pan-Am Dome, due to sponsorship rules. Some of the venues in the Toronto area included Exhibition Stadium, the Pan Am/Parapan Am Fields, the Exhibition Centre
