By JENNIFER LEWINGTON AND JEFF
GRAY
Council approves new rules for off-leash areas in parks and
finally decides the fate of Casa Loma
Meanwhile,
the battle for Casa Loma - seen as Toronto's tired, aging castle on a hill -
was finally won yesterday when city council voted to keep it in the hands of
the Kiwanis Club, despite objections from a handful of councillors.
The fight
pitted the local councillor, Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul's), an ally of Mayor
David Miller, against the Kiwanians, who hired Paul Sutherland, a former
councillor and well-connected lobbyist, to knock on doors and make their case
at city hall.
Their efforts
helped reverse a recommendation by a blue-ribbon panel that they be stripped of
their control of the city-owned palatial home, which the Kiwanis Club says remains the city's No. 2 tourist attraction, next to
the CN Tower.
Council voted
yesterday 32-5 to instruct bureaucrats to enter into negotiations to seek a new
licence agreement with Kiwanis, possibly for as long as 20 years. A move to
have the place's books inspected more regularly was referred back to the
bureaucracy for further study. The final agreement with the Kiwanis is to
return to council by fall for approval.
The city will
likely be allowed to appoint some board members, but Kiwanis chairman Richard
Wozenilek says his bottom line is for his group to retain the majority and the
chairmanship.
Mr. Mihevc
had argued that a new arm's-length Casa Loma Trust, more accountable to the
city, be set up and run in the same way as the zoo and Exhibition Place.
He said Casa
Loma - for which the city is paying $20-million in exterior renovations - is a
massive missed-opportunity for the city, and needs a more dynamic, professional
board to run it. As it stands, he said, the Kiwanis Club has done too little
with the place.
"Go to
Casa Loma right now, go to the second floor. It's a bunch of empty rooms,"
he said, adding that city staff believe it could bring in a lot more money -
enough to run it and restore it - if the castle's potential was fully exploited
as a tourist destination.
Mr. Mihevc
also questioned the Kiwanis Club's move to hire a lobbyist to influence city
staff and councillors.
"Could
you imagine if the zoo hired a lobbyist to lobby us? Guess what, they paid a
whack of money to hire a lobbyist to lobby us as to how they would be governed.
... To my mind, that's inappropriate," Mr. Mihevc said.
Mr. Wozenilek
said the Kiwanis has ambitious plans to restore and renew Casa Loma. And he
denied allegations that Kiwanis planned to hand a lucrative operating contract
to
The mayor supported the Kiwanis deal, as did
deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, who yesterday said starting over and leaving the
attraction in limbo would only deepen its decline: "Twenty or 30 years
ago, Casa Loma was an iconic element in the city. Somehow, we let it
slip."