After the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, the question was not only how to maintain new facilities, but how to ensure public investment continued delivering community benefit for decades to come.
The Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games sparked a significant build of sport and recreation infrastructure across Ontario, including the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, the Mattamy National Cycling Centre and the Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletics Stadium at York University.
The facilities were always meant to outlast the Games themselves. They represented a long-term investment in sport, health and community.
The challenge was not simply preserving buildings. It was creating a financial model capable of sustaining public access, community use and high-performance sport over the long term.
To help achieve that, the Pan Am Legacy Fund (Legacy Fund) was established.
The challenge
Previous large-scale sporting events had shown how quickly legacy funding structures could become expensive, fragmented or unsustainable once the event itself ended.
Ontario needed a model that could:
- maintain independence from government operations
- minimize administrative overhead
- provide stable, long-term support for facilities
- continue growing public value over time
- serve as an adaptable template for future public initiatives
The solution
The Ontario Financing Authority designed a 20-year drawdown fund intended to provide stable annual funding while continuing to grow investment returns over time.
Following a competitive RFP process, Toronto Foundation was selected to administer the Legacy Fund. Our established governance framework, investment infrastructure and experience stewarding long-term capital positioned us to support a fund of this scale efficiently and responsibly.
Seeded with $77 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments, the Legacy Fund is designed to support facility operations while preserving and growing capital over time.
Fund allocation decisions are guided by a multi-stakeholder committee representing all levels of government, sport organizations and community leaders, helping ensure accountability and alignment with public priorities.
Ten years later
At the 10-year mark:
- $60M+ has been distributed to support facilities
- $30M+ has been generated in investment returns
- Administrative and investment costs have remained capped at 0.55% annually
The result is a funding structure that continues generating public value beyond the original investment.
A different kind of legacy
The Pan Am Legacy Fund demonstrates a compelling alternative to traditional government fund management:
- lower administrative costs through existing infrastructure
- independent governance and long-term stewardship
- greater public benefit generated from the original investment
- a model adaptable to future public initiatives
Ten years on, the Legacy Fund continues supporting facilities across the region while growing the value of the original public investment.
The model demonstrates how thoughtful financial stewardship can help public infrastructure remain active, accessible and community-serving long after the closing ceremonies end.