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City moves to evict Captain John’s

John Letnik’s chances of saving his beloved floating restaurant are sinking fast, after a city committee voted Monday to move ahead with confiscating the once-popular marine-themed eatery.

Letnik, the owner of Captain John’s Harbour Boat Restaurant on board an immobilized ship at the foot of Yonge Street, is drowning in unpaid bills.

He owes the city approximately $662,000 in property taxes and other charges, and the Toronto Port Authority a further $216,872 in berthing fees. He’s also $140,000 in arrears to Waterfront Toronto, which owns the property where the gangplank of his craft connects to the shore.

The city, TPA and Waterfront Toronto have been working with Letnik to try to resolve his situation for the past two years, but on Monday the Government Management committee decided his time was up.

Councillors on the committee approved a set of staff recommendations that are officially confidential, but which Councillor Pam McConnell revealed would start the process of evicting Letnik and seizing his boat. The recommendations will go to council next month for approval.

After the vote, McConnell said that the city has done everything possible to amicably end the dispute with the self-styled sea captain, but that allowing the ship to remain where it is would obstruct efforts to revitalize the waterfront, including the construction a new park next to the nearby Pier 27 condo development.

“I think it is not in the public interest to leave it there any longer and to do nothing. We’ve gone through all of the hoops to try and resolve it, it has not been resolvable,” McConnell said.

“As much as Captain John is an icon of the city and well-known, I would recommend to him that he figure out a way to walk off that gangplank, and to get on with the rest of his life,” she added. “Because Captain John’s is over.”

Councillor David Shiner, the committee chair, said he voted for the recommendations “with a little bit of sadness” but that it would be unfair to other citizens to allow Letnik to avoid paying taxes. Although Shiner professed to having fond memories of the restaurant, he said the ship was now just “an old, rusting hulk on the waterfront.”

The committee’s decision came despite a personal plea from Letnik himself, who was joined at the meeting by former city councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski.

Korwin-Kuzcynski described Letnik as a personal friend and asked councillors to show him some leniency, claiming that Captain John’s had “pioneered” the revitalization of Toronto’s harbour.

“Actually, he started everything that’s going on down there. He started it!” said Korwin-Kuczynski. “And you’re going to kick him today and take his ship from him, and that’s going to be the end of Captain John’s in the city.”

Letnik, who says he lives on board the ship, gave every indication that he will not go quietly if his boat is seized. He told reporters he wouldn’t rule out chaining himself to the vessel in order to avoid eviction.

“They’re not going to move me just like that,” the 74-year-old said.

“I understand they want to redo the whole area. I fully understand that. But… I’d like to walk off the ship after… 43 years with the dignity. Not like a dog.”

Letnik opened Captain John’s in 1970, and during its heyday it attracted celebrities and politicians, and later kitsch-loving locals and unsuspecting tourists, to Toronto’s otherwise desolate waterfront.

But he began falling behind on his property taxes in 2002 and last June the restaurant served its last meal. The city shut off Letnik’s water supply after he failed to pay his bill for the previous six years.

In 2007, Letnik unsuccessfully argued in Superior Court that his ship, which is permanently connected to the shore through water, hydro, and gas lines, was technically not a “structure” as defined by the Ontario Assessment Act, and therefore could not be taxed. A Divisional Court upheld the lower court’s decision, but Letnik has never accepted the ruling.

On Monday Letnik said that he’s had two potential buyers for the ship, but they both walked away because his lease with the Toronto Port Authority is month-to-month and offers them no security. He says he’s asked the TPA for a more long-term agreement, but the federal agency has refused to grant him one.

Although the recommendations that the committee approved on Monday will remain confidential until after the council vote, in an email to NOW, Mark Richardson, vice president and general counsel for the TPA, outlined what the final act of this unlikely nautical drama could be.

According to Richardson, Letnik can still search for a buyer, but any sale would have to be approved by the agencies he owes money to. If a deal doesn’t materialize, he could be forced to sell it off to pay his bills.

“It may become necessary to proceed with a Court-ordered process,” Richardson wrote. “That process would involve the Court appointing an experienced marine broker to advertise the ship for sale… and, ultimately, ordering the ship sold at the highest price offered.”

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