rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] "John Tory is right to be skeptical about a Toronto bid for World Expo 2025"

In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee is rightly skeptical about the good sense in Toronto hosting the World Expo in 2025. What good ever comes from these? (The Toronto Star reports on the mayor's caution.)

Those who want Toronto to host World Expo 2025 sure have awful timing. The same morning that they held a press conference to urge the city to make a bid for the exposition, Toronto’s top civil servant was warning that city hall is heading for a fiscal cliff.

City manager Peter Wallace told Mayor John Tory and the executive committee on Tuesday morning that the “tricks” the city has been using to balance its books won’t work forever. “The process of kicking the can down the road will inevitably come to an end,” he said.

Toronto already has trouble paying for keeping the potholes filled and the streetcars rumbling, not to mention all the “unmet capital needs,” such as public housing repairs and transit maintenance. What a fine time, then, to spend a bundle on a flashy international fair.

No one seems to know for sure yet what it would cost to host the expo, but you can be certain that it wouldn’t be cheap. A 2013 Ernst & Young study said it could range from $1-billion to $3-billion, depending on the breaks.