Re: Robert Fung Leaving TWRC/New Acting Chair Appointed
From the Globe and Mail on Robert Fung's departure the temporary appointment of Peter Smith...
Forget the figurehead, waterfront board needs a doer JOHN BARBER
Yesterday, the board of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. elected Peter Smith as its new chair, filling a vacancy created by the departure of former chair Robert Fung -- an excellent decision, one of its best ever.
Why? Because nobody knows Mr. Smith, and Mr. Smith, after years of diligent, low-profile service on such boards -- he is former chairman of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and current chairman of GO Transit -- seems to like it that way. Because what's needed aboard this boat now is competent management, not another figurehead.
The three governments that arranged for Mr. Fung's retirement, declining to renew his contracted three-year term, made a good first step: One fewer among the several hands now steering can't be bad. The pity is that Mr. Smith's appointment is only temporary. His patrons are determined to find another figurehead when what they really need is another Mr. Smith.
Mr. Fung's career epitomizes the problem. Initially introduced to the public as a hard-charging insider with an inviolate mandate to transform the Toronto waterfront into an international showpiece, he stood by loyally as the three governments who had nominated him to head the new corporation gently gelded it, thoroughly violating his mandate and rejecting the financial plan Mr. Fung proposed.
The TWRC became just one more of the small, squabbling agencies it was supposed to sweep away. Mr. Fung allowed himself to become a figurehead while the new corporation floundered.
Somebody had to do it. Faced with a choice between making a bold move and muddling through, every government involved found a reason to choose the latter.
The approach has its merits. Although Mr. Fung presided over the death of his own vision of a properly financed and all-powerful waterfront agency, he has muddled manfully throughout his five years in the allegedly top job.
Thus the shadowy decision to retire Mr. Fung is less consequential than it might seem. And given that the TWRC has become a typical political chop shop, there is little reason to disapprove.
The identity of any new chair is less important than their affiliation. Mr. Fung is a friend of Jean Chrétien and former roommate of Paul Martin. Any need to elaborate?
Although Mayor David Miller is getting more credit for removing Mr. Fung than he deserves, he is the one politician with the clearest incentive for seeing it done. His own future, to an uncomfortable degree, depends on continuing federal patronage -- or "buy-in," as they now say -- of the waterfront project. Inviting the new overlords to nominate their own candidate is an obvious, indeed necessary step.
But a new figurehead of a different ideological hue won't help the mayor explain himself any better to Toronto voters this November. Although the many bureaucratic cooks currently stirring up the waterfront broth have made some progress over the past year, "deliverables" are still scarce.
This summer will see construction of a wider Union Station subway platform -- hardly a waterfront project -- the announcement of a facelift for the Princes' Gates and the opening of a new dragon boat course in the western beaches. Bold moves, such as those featured in a current competition for an all-encompassing scheme to improve access to the waterfront, remain strictly visionary: pretty pictures with no real money behind them.
Whether he likes it or not, it is the mayor -- not a new figurehead -- to whom the public will look for results from its investment in the waterfront. That is why he once nominated himself to chair the TWRC, although he failed to persuade senior governments to go along with that and settled instead for a seat on the board. Now that he has helped clear the way for a Tory appointee, he has no doubt earned some modest reward -- perhaps something sexier than a dragon boat course and "interim sports fields" to announce between now and November.
He certainly needs it: Sitting on the sidelines while the island airport revved up and the province decided to double the already enormous footprint of its waterfront electrical plant, Mayor Miller has lately seemed as helpless as Mr. Fung -- another impotent figurehead.
Unfortunately, it seems that there's always room for more.
www.theglobeandmail.com/s...columnists
Interesting to see if Mayor Miller has "earned some modest reward" for this appointment on the waterfront. It's dirty, partisian politics, but it'd be good to see more movement on the waterfront.
