Toronto out of race for 2015 World's Fair

Toronto is out of the race to host the 2015 World's Fair, after the federal and Ontario governments failed to paper over their differences only moments before the international deadline for entries.

"We are quite disappointed," said Toronto Mayor David Miller, at a press conference to break the news.

He called the bid "a terrific opportunity to expedite revival of the port lands and to put Toronto and Canada on the world stage in a way that would make us all proud."

The federal and provincial governments each put the onus on the other to provide a financial guarantee for potential losses, pegged at $400-million and up, on the $2.8-billion project.

Under rules of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, the national government has to commit to such guarantees. But under Canadian policy since 1995, provinces are expected to provide the necessary backstop.

With Izmir, Turkey and Milan, Italy already signed up to compete for the six-month fair, the Toronto bid was caught up in infighting between senior governments on the guarantee issue.

Politicians in Ottawa and Queen's Park were quick to blame the other.

The Ontario government, pointing to its own rising deficit and the federal government's surplus, said Ottawa was better placed to backstop the bid and refused to write a "blank cheque" for the project.

In Ottawa, federal Conservative heritage minister Bev Oda said accused Ontario's Liberal government of refusing to hold talks to solve the issue. She said the federal government was ready to commit $600-million to the event, but would not cover a potential deficit.

At Queen's Park, Liberal finance minister Greg Sorbara he said he had hoped the talks could continue for another six months to see if "we can perhaps find a way to strengthen the bid." The minister expressed surprise that Ottawa had called off the talks.

Today's failure came in spite of a "positive" conference call, Toronto Mayor David Miller, provincial finance minister Greg Sorbara and two members of the federal cabinet, finance minister Jim Flaherty and heritage minister Bev Oda agreed to make a last push to resolve their differences.

The deadline for entering the race was noon Thursday, Toronto time.