Landowner warns of 'mass fatalities' if Toronto gets elevated riverfront boardwalk

A proposed elevated riverfront boardwalk in Toronto is facing fierce opposition, with a private country club the planned boardwalk passes warning that this new addition will result in "mass fatalities" in a desperate bid to halt the project.

The comical saga of the proposed boardwalk's 2022 approval and subsequent roadblocks is detailed in Matt Elliott's City Hall Watcher newsletter.

The Weston Golf and Country Club is rallying to stop the City and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority's (TRCA) ongoing Mid Humber Gap Trail Alignment Study, which follows the July 2022 approval of a 1.4-kilometre missing link to close a gap in the Humber River Trail.

Plans include an elevated boardwalk running along the Humber, which would pass the Weston Golf & Country Club — something the club is not too happy about.

The plan was met with some ridiculous claims by the golf club in early 2022, and the club's management still has its heels firmly planted on the matter.

In a 2022 letter addressed to Council, Weston's Golf Course Superintendent and General Manager, Robert Ackermann, warned that people using the new boardwalk would inevitably suffer injuries from "errant golf balls" and presented a hypothetical flooding scenario that argued pedestrians could "find themselves in a 'DEATH TRAP' from which there is no escape."

"Mass fatalities may be inevitable, and the City will have been aware of and will have created this situation."

A rendering of the boardwalk passing the club challenges this argument, showing the trail fenced in and protected from potential golf ball strikes.

Approaching two years since these claims were made, the golf club is still fighting back.

Elliott reports that the club has hired a lobbyist to push back against the City and TRCA's plans, just the latest measure in a series of hurdles the project has faced since gaining approval almost two years ago.

These challenges include a surprise request from the Ministry of Environment for an additional environmental assessment, which was challenged by City lawyers. The province backed down, and the project finally gained the necessary approvals at the end of 2023 — but not without adding some additional requirements that will further extend the project timeline.

In its latest lobbying plea, Ramiro Mora of Massey Advisory argues on behalf of the club that the new trail link "will cause irreversible damage to the impacted landowner, the Weston Golf and Country Club, and which will have environmental and social repercussions."