March 24, 2016

Right Hon. , P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada House of Commons Parliament Hill Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

We are writing to you on behalf of a wide cross section of civil society and City Council, with respect to the 's withdrawal from the Bureau lnternational des Expositions (BIE), which is comprised of 169 member nations. It should be noted that during your predecessor's term as Prime Minister, Canada was the only G-20 nation to have withdrawn from this well regarded international body.

Just as we are now doing at the United Nations, we respectfully ask that your government again re-engage here with the community of nations and re-join the BIE.

By not being a member of the BIE, we are missing out on an exceptional opportunity to spur economic growth and showcase Canada as an innovative, diverse and inclusive nation and a dynamic destination for trade, investment, education, and tourism.

We kindly request a meeting with the appropriate senior staff person in your office to discuss Canada's membership in the BIE and Canada's re-engagement on the global stage.

Prime Minister, we thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

John Tory Kristyn Wong-Tam Hon. Mayor City Councillor The Senate of Canada City of Toronto (-Rosedale) (Former )

Mike Yorke Ken Tanenbaum Jan De Silva President Local 27 Vice-Chair President & CEO The Carpenters Union The Kilmer Group Toronto Region Board of Trade

Expo 2025 Canada Tel: (416) 392 - 7903 Web: www.Expo2025Canada.ca E-mail: [email protected]

Larry Campbell Johanne Belanger Claire Hopkinson President (Local 27) The Senate of Canada President & CEO Director and CEO (Former Mayor of Vancouver) Tourism Toronto Toronto Arts Council

Jason Dobbin John Mollenhauer Chair City Councillor & Chair - President and CEO - Toronto Toronto Society of Architects Affordable Housing Construction Association Committee

Sara Diamond Hon. Barbara Hall President Former Mayor of Toronto Former Mayor of Toronto OCAD University

Peter Milczyn Anne Golden Max Beck Member-Provincial Parliament Distinguished Visiting Scholar CEO - Expo '98 Toronto (-Lakeshore) & Scholar - Ryerson University (prior) World's Fair Bid Co-Chair (prior) Expo 2015 Bid

Lis Pimentel Terry Mundell Mark Garner President President CEO, Downtown-Yonge UNITE HERE (Local 75) Hotel Greater Toronto Hotel Business Improvement Area & Hospitality Workers Union Association

Andy Manahan Exec. Director, Residential & Civil Construction Alliance - (RCCAO)

Organizations/individuals from across the political spectrum that have contributed to the work of the Expo 2025 Canada Committee

Alan Slobodsky - Development Consultant, former Chief of Staff to Mayor Aleem Kanji - Greater Toronto Airports Authority Alfredo Romano - CEO, Castlepoint Numa Ana Bailao - Toronto City Councillor Andrew Sorbara - The Sorbara Group Andy Manahan - CEO, Residential & Civil Construction Alliance (RCCAO) Ann McDiarmid - Past CEO of prior Expo 2005 bid (National Capital Region) Anne Golden - Past Pres., Conference Board in Canada Art Eggleton - Senate of Canada / & former Mayor of Toronto Barb Helm - former Director Expo Division, Federal Department of Canadian Heritage Brian Ashton - Past Chair, previous Toronto Expo bid & President, Canadian National Exhibition Carlo Bonanni - Build Toronto Carlos Pimentel - Carpenters Union Executive Carol Wilding - (as the then CEO) Toronto Region Board of Trade - former Deputy Mayor of the City of Toronto Claire Hopkinson - Director & CEO, Toronto Arts Council - former MP (NDP) Toronto-Danforth Cynthia Wilkey - Co-Chair, the Committee (residents' group) Dan Tisch - CEO, Argyle Communications Dave Harvey - CEO Park People (Toronto Alliance for Better Parks) David Crombie - former Mayor of the City of Toronto David Frame - VP, Ontario General Contractors Association David Gerofsky - CEO, First Gulf Debra DeMonte - Past VP (Toronto Region) Ontario Restaurant, Hotel & Motel Association Derek Ballantyne - CEO, Community Forward Fund Erin McGinn - Vice President, Ryerson University Frank Klees - former PC Critic for Transportation at the Ontario Legislature Geoff Wilson - CEO, Ports Toronto (Toronto Port Authority) George Hanus - CEO, Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance - MPP, Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Grant Humes - Executive Director & CEO, Financial District Business Improvement Area Henry Cao - CEO Greenland Development Company (Canada) Hillary Marshall - VP, Greater Toronto Airports Authority Howard Eng - CEO, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) Ian Graham - R.E. Millward Urban Planners / & Publisher Novae Res Urbis Jaime Watt - CEO, Navigator Jan De Silva - CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade Jason Dobbin - Chair, Toronto Society of Architects Jaye Robinson - Toronto City Councillor, Don Valley West Jim Karygiannis - Toronto City Councillor, Scarborough - Toronto City Councillor, St. Paul's Johanne Belanger - CEO, Tourism Toronto John Campbell - past CEO, Waterfront Toronto John Carmicheal - former Conservative MP, Don Valley West John Cartwright - President, Toronto & York Region Labour Council John Duffy - Principal, Strategycorp John Godfrey - former Federal Minister of Infrastructure John Mollenhauer - CEO, Toronto Construction Association John Wilson - Co-Chair, the West Don Lands Committee (residents group) Julie Dabrusin - Liberal Member of Parliament, Toronto-Danforth Justin Van Dette - Vice-President, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Ken Greenberg - Greenberg & Associates, Urban Planners Ken Tanenbaum - Vice Chair, The Kilmer Group Kim Graham - Kim Graham & Associates, Communications Consultant Kristyn Wong-Tam - Toronto City Councillor, Toronto Centre-Rosedale Kwame McKenzie - CEO, The Wellesley Institute Larry Campbell - Liberal Senator (British Columbia) and former Mayor of Vancouver Larry Tanenbaum - Chair, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Lis Pimentel - President, Local 75, UNITE HERE - Hotel & Hospitality Workers Union Marcello Cabezas - Arts Entrepreneur, Contributor to The Huffington Post Mark Garner - CEO, Downtown-Yonge Business Improvement Area Matt Kellway - former NDP Member of Parliament Meg Davis - VP Waterfront Toronto Michael Kraljevic - President & CEO, The Toronto Port Lands Company Michael Shapcott - The Wellesley Institute Mike Yorke - President, the Carpenters’ Union (Local 27 - Toronto & the GTA) - Liberal MPP & Minister, Legislature of Ontario Monte McNaughton - Ontario PC MPP, Legislature of Ontario - former Deputy Mayor of Toronto - former MP and mayoral candidate Pam McConnell - Deputy Mayor, City of Toronto - CEO, Postmedia and former Chairman of Paul Sutherland - CEO, Sutherland Associates Paula Fletcher - Toronto City Councillor, Toronto-Danforth - MP, and former Minister of the Environment - Liberal MPP (Etobicoke) and Toronto Provincial Liberal Caucus Chair - former Ontario PC Minister & MPP - Gillies Consulting Rahul Bhardwaj - CEO, Toronto Community Foundation Ralph Lean - Senior Counsel, Gowlings Richard Ciano - CEO, Campaign Research, & Past President, PC Party of Ontario Richard Joy - CEO, Urban Land Institute, Toronto Richard Peddie - former CEO, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Robert Foster - CEO, Capital Canada Rocco Rossi - CEO, Prostate Cancer Association Rod Phillips - Chair, Greater Toronto Civic Action Rollo Myers - Manager, Architectural Conservancy of Ontario Sara Diamond - President of OCAD University Sarah Doucette - Toronto City Councillor, Parkdale-High Park Scott Mullin - Vice President, Toronto Dominion Bank Sean Strickland - CEO, Ontario Construction Secretariat Sheldon Levy - as President of Ryerson University (is now Ont. Deputy Minister Training & Colleges) - Toronto City Councillor, Don Valley West - Ontario Minister of Transportation, & Liberal MPP (), Terrie O'Leary - Acting President & CEO, Invest Toronto Terry Elenis - CEO, Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association Terry Mundell - CEO, Greater Toronto Hotel Association Toby Lennox - Interim Chair, Newco (Invest Toronto) Ucal Powell - (Retired) Past President, Carpenters District Council - PC MPP, Ontario Legislature, Queens Park Wendy Cukier - President, Brock University Winston Young - CFO, Toronto Port Lands Company

Greater Toronto’s Economic Future Should Include Expo 2025

Sunday June 03, 2012

By Steven Del Duca, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Ralph Lean

KYODO NEWS/AP The colourful opening ceremonies of Expo 2005 in Nagoya, Japan.

A 2011 global index of 130 major city-regions conducted by the prestigious Economist magazine ranked Toronto the world’s fourth most liveable city, yet our continued prosperity and sustained liveability will only occur if we keep working in a focused and strategic way.

As we know, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, which were completed on-time and on-budget, stand out as a true Canadian success story that showcased our nation to the world.

Now a similar opportunity knocks for the GTA: hosting a World’s Fair, or Expo as it’s commonly known. An Expo is a global event that unites people, instils pride and is a major catalyst for jobs and economic growth. It could present the same transformative infrastructure and city-building opportunities as Expo '67 did for and Expo '86 did for Vancouver.

Major Expos are held every five years. Shanghai’s Expo 2010 welcomed an astounding 72 million visitors, Milan is now building Expo 2015, and the final bids for Expo 2020 are currently being evaluated.

While 2025 seems a long way off, a formal bid to the governing Expo body, the Bureau International des Expositions, must be submitted on May 1, 2016. Once a city is chosen, an eight-year period of planning, design and construction would begin in earnest, unleashing significant economic development for the region.

Yes, we have been down this road before. A prior Toronto Expo effort collapsed in 2006, when the needed agreement of all three levels of government could not be secured. A future bid must have the support of the province, which helps underwrite it (as it did with the Pan-Am Games); from the city, which helps with planning, organizational, and site issues; and from the federal government, which pitches the bid on our behalf, nation-to- nation.

The economic case for an Expo, as demonstrated by PricewaterhouseCoopers for our prior bid, is compelling.

It could result in:

 143,000 jobs — an average of 17,000 jobs per year over eight years, generating $8.4 billion in wages and salaries.  $13.5 billion of new value-added GDP (or economic activity) within Canada; $8.1 billion of that would be generated in Greater Toronto.  $5.3 billion in brand-new revenues generated solely by the Expo — $2.7 billion to the federal treasury, $2 billion for the province and $600 million for Ontario municipalities.  A co-ordinated global marketing effort showcasing the GTA, Ontario, and Canada as a dynamic economic destination.  Over 400 acres (175 hectares) of clean, newly usable, serviced land for future development, turning a mostly derelict Port Lands into an urban jewel — a clean, green and sustainable community on a revitalized waterfront.  A huge boost in tourism: An Expo lasts for six months (from May 1 to Oct. 31) and would welcome approximately 40 million visitors to the site (an average of 225,000 each day). A 2009 tourism report prepared by MPP Greg Sorbara called for the doubling of tourism receipts in Ontario — Expo 2025 can help make that happen.

A motion going to the June meeting of this week calls for input from the city, province and federal government regarding a potential Expo bid, and for staff to report back in March 2013, well after a thorough review of the waterfront has been completed and received.

The report would include an analysis of how an Expo could produce action on existing plans in key areas: investment, the environment, transportation infrastructure, marketing Toronto abroad, tourism, arts and culture, urban planning, research and innovation, a renewed waterfront, and showcasing Canada’s ethno-cultural diversity to the world.

It would examine core principles that could underpin a GTA Expo, ranging from how we can develop the most innovative, technologically advanced Expo while ensuring that it’s the most socially responsible and environ- mentally sustainable fair ever held. It will deal with how the GTA could successfully deliver a 2025 Expo on-time and deficit-free by including broad private-sector participation.

Expo 2025 would be an economic generator that would attract investment to the GTA, clean up the Port Lands, build infrastructure, boost tourism, create jobs, and show the very best of our region, province and country.

An Expo could build a dynamic legacy for Toronto for decades to come — a legacy of new transit, environmental cleanup, affordable housing, social and community improvements, and inclusion. It has too much potential benefit for us to simply take a pass.

Steven Del Duca is a past co-chair of the Greater Toronto Regional Economic Summit. Kristyn Wong-Tam is Toronto city councillor for Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale. Ralph Lean is a senior counsel with a Toronto law firm