U of T Scarborough students, staff hope for successful Pan-Am bid

U of T Scarborough students, staff hope for successful Pan-Am bid. Principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough, Franco Vaccarino, walks with chairman of the board of the Pan Am bid committee David Peterson during his visit to the university's facilities in August. File photo/BEN NELMS

The University of Toronto Scarborough, after all, will be big winners if Toronto wins the 2015 Pan American and Parapan Games - getting an aquatics complex, field house and possibly a rapid-transit line built in the next few years.

Student leaders and senior members of the administration will therefore be at the campus pub for the moment the Pan American Sports Organization, meeting in the Mexican city this week, announce their choice.

"We'll be gathering and keeping our fingers crossed," U of T Scarborough Principal Dr. Franco Vaccarino said Tuesday, Nov. 3.

"People are feeling good and proud about University of Toronto Scarborough being chosen as the potential site," he added, and hope the games bring a legacy not just for the campus but the surrounding community.

Mayor David Miller, provincial and federal ministers will deliver the final pitch in Guadalajara, finishing with a video presentation that is "quite moving," said Adrian Heaps, the Scarborough Southwest councillor who's taken a leading role in supporting the bid and will be there too.

Toronto will be third in line, behind rival finalists Bogata, Columbia and Lima, Peru.

"We're the last thing people see and hopefully the first thing they remember," said Heaps, cautioning the games - a "great morale boost" for the city if it wins - are far from being in the bag.

A partnership with the city means the aquatics centre will be built even if Toronto doesn't win, but the arrangement would have to go back to city council, Heaps said.

"Games or no games, we're committed to making it happen."

There is less agreement on prospects for the Scarborough-Malvern Light-Rail Line, a project that sits low on a lengthy list of routes the city wants to build. Without a successful Pan-Am bid, the line connecting the Scarborough campus on Morningside Avenue with both a Sheppard East LRT and Kennedy Station is a generation away from construction.

But success this Friday is expected to greatly boost chances the line may be rushed to completion for the games.

Though Scarborough East Councillor Paul Ainslie called those games a "great stimulus project for the area" he said this week the light-rail proposal is a "huge concern for me."

Ainslie asked whether the thousands of athletes and spectators could reach the games on shuttle buses instead of a new rail line with an "extravagant" cost.

"Once the games are over, how extensively is the LRT line going to be used?"

Regardless of the outcome Friday, Vaccarino said "there's already an important momentum that's been created" toward getting better transit to the campus, one he will pursue.