Mayor declares conflict ahead of future discussions about Rogers Centre

FILE--The CN Tower and Skydome are seen on Lake Ontario in Toronto Monday August 26, 2002. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer)

Toronto Mayor John Tory has declared a conflict of interest in any future discussions about the Rogers Centre.

The declaration was made about a month after the mayor said that discussions were underway about the future of the building—whether the 30-year-old stadium would get a facelift or be rebuilt elsewhere.

In a statement, Tory said that he announced the conflict because of his ongoing “role in the Rogers family trusts”. He said that while the trusts are not involved the day to day operations of the company, they do play a part in the ownership structure of Rogers Communications.

"I believe it's important that I publicly declare my interest in this matter extremely early to maintain public trust in our system," Tory said in the statement.

"I want to thank the Integrity Commissioner for her advice on this matter and assure the public that I have taken all the steps she advised to protect the Office of the Mayor from being drawn into the process around any discussions of possible future plans for Rogers Centre."

Tory has often recused himself from council on matters involving Rogers.

In July, Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro told BNN Bloomberg that the team is committed to improving the Rogers Centre in the short-term, but bigger plans are in the works. No further details have been released regarding the future plans of the stadium.

“We are trying to be really careful to make sure we don’t just do something, but we get it right for this fan base, for the long-haul,” Shapiro said.