Peter Street Basin Master Plan 2026, Ability Basin Lab, 28th Annual Mersivity/Waterhci Symposium, Mersivity/Waterhci-2026

Peter Street Basin Master Plan 2026 is the theme of the 28th Annual Mersivity / Waterhci Symposium, Mersivity/Waterhci-2026.

Peter Street Basin is an approximately 60m by 30m outdoor pool connected to Lake Ontario by an approximately 12m wide channel, and has been used as a safe refuge or "safe harbour" for paddlers seeking refuge from a storm or simply to rest.

As it has fallen into neglect, we have created the Friends of Peter Street Basin and successfully cleaned it up for use as an outdoor classroom and teaching lab in Lake Ontario.

The main centerpiece of the Basin is an artwork by the late artist Bernie Miller, survived by his wife Jeanne Randolph, an accomplished artist and art historian herself, so we invited her to give the Keynote Address at the Symposium.

Some of the research projects associated with the Basin included autonomous underwater submarines to help clean up the Basin, new kinds of user-interfaces to explore the Basin, in both real and virtual space, as well as new technologies for people with disabilities, with exploration of the Basin as a place for accessibility.

We envision Peter Street Basin as a place for safe water access, safe paddling, and use of alternative accessibility vessels such as modified canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, and Safetyballs, e.g. Safetyballing as a form of water access for those unable to paddle a canoe or kayak.

We envision "Ability Basin Lab" (abbreviated "ABL" or "Abasin" or "A-base") as a place for people of all abilities to touch and be touched by water, to have water access for more than just looking at water, and to conduct world-class research and teaching on and in Lake Ontario, by way of "concrete limnology" (lake study in a concrete harbour setting).  In particular, the clean concrete walls provide a place for lake access and lake study free of grit, grime, sand, or mud, as an alternative to more traditional sand beaches.

Friends of Peter Street Basin meet every Sunday at 3pm.  At one of the upcoming meetings next month, Sunday June 21st, we'll have the Summer Solstice Safety Symposium and outline how Peter Street Basin is an important safety feature of the downtown Toronto harbour.  We'll outline how the Basin has a history of use as a safe refuge with four important safety features:  West Rest area (known colloquially among locals as "Wrest") which is to the left when paddling into the Basin and is in an excellent state-of-repair; East Rest area (known as "Reest") which is in need of repair (exposed rebar on the concrete as well as damaged safetyramp); West Exit (known as "Wexit"); East Exit (known as "Eexit").  We'll outline the safety-history: Wrest and Reest were installed 40 years ago, but Wexit and Eexit were installed more recently, just 2 years ago!  See Page 2 of the Proceedings as well as further descriptions in this Proceedings.

Join us any Sunday, and especially Sunday June 21st for the Summer Solstice Safety Symposium with a review of "Wrest", "Reest", "Wexit", and "Eexit", along with a review of the ABCDE of Safetyballing and many other safety features of the downtown Toronto waterfront.  June 21st.  Save the date!