Where can you park a hovercraft in Toronto?

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Ever see a hovercraft in a traffic jam?

Documents released to the Toronto Sun after a freedom-of-information request suggest a planned hovercraft ferry service that would link the downtown with the Niagara Region has had its struggles in finding a good parking spot.

Heather Inglis Baron, a project manager for the city’s waterfront secretariat, wrote to colleagues in January 2023 about a conversation a PortsToronto official had with “the hovercraft folks” – staff with St. Catharines-based Hoverlink Ontario.

“(That official) had previously communicated to them that he did not think that there were any suitable locations in the inner harbour – and he had directed them to Ontario Place,” Inglis Baron wrote. “Ontario Place was interested, but they will be under construction for a couple of years, so this is likely why they are looking for a temporary location.”

A series of emails in August 2023 involving waterfront secretariat staff focus on Portland Slip. That spot, close to Billy Bishop Airport, appears to have caught the eye of Hoverlink early – but it’s hardly empty water.

The water lot, near Bathurst St. and Queens Quay W., was largely taken up by three lease holders, a city official said. Billy Bishop’s ferry service and a tour boat operator called Pirate Life took up most of the west side of the lot, while the north and east sides were sublet to tour boat and industrial users.

There’s bustle on dry land, too.

While the waterfront secretariat was discussing the Hoverlink matter, City Hall staff were working toward the closure of a leaky parking garage as part of a greening of the space west of Portland Slip. (A new park, Bathurst Quay Common, officially opened in November, and renovations on an adjacent building that will serve as an arts venue, called The Corleck, are on track for completion in 2026.)

A different project manager said City Hall’s corporate real estate management division, which owns the water lot, ran Hoverlink representatives through a list of concerns. Those included slip availability, marine traffic, how to manage passengers – everything from parking to washrooms to keeping them sheltered in case of rain – and concerns that any deal with Hoverlink would be perceived as a sole-sourced contract.

Representatives from Hoverlink did not respond to requests for comment from the Sun.

But an official with City Hall, speaking to the Sun on background, said Hoverlink’s search for a Toronto docking spot appears to have progressed to encompass a number of potential sites beyond just Portland Slip.

That official said while City Hall has heard pitches about ferry service before, the idea of having hovercrafts skimming Lake Ontario is a new one.

The emails disclosed to the Sun offer a peek at the other utopian dreams some have for the waterfront.

Bryan Bowen, the program manager for Bathurst Quay Common, told waterfront secretariat staff that Pirate Life’s operator has a “bigger ambition to introduce floating artist studios and water taxis in the slip, which is a non-starter in light of the planned park here, plus various other factors.”

(Mat Slaman, director of Pirate Life operator Art and Water, told the Sun his organization is a big believer in opening up the water as a “public space,” and said progress has been made on the plans Bowen referenced.)

Waterfront secretariat director David Stonehouse, meanwhile, in an email exchange about Hoverlink told colleagues “these proposals come in from time to time,” comparing the hovercraft idea to plans for a combination boat-hotel or a “barge parking garage.”

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