John Tory has become the target of heavy criticism for the second time this week after pulling out of two more mayoral debates.

A debate on the future of Toronto's waterfront, hosted by the Waterfront Business Improvement Area and the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, was scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday but was cancelled after Tory dropped out.

In a statement on the York Quay Neighbourhood Association's website, organizers say the move was "disrepectful."

"This one-on-one debate between Tory and Olivia Chow was much anticipated because of the Waterfront’s controversial issues — the proposed jet expansion of the island airport, and the urban renewal led by Waterfront Toronto," the statement said.

"By leaving organizers in the lurch without an explanation, it is assumed that Tory is unwilling to face these issues."

NoJets TO, a group of citizens opposed to the expansion of the Toronto Island Airport, released a statement Monday night, calling Tory’s decision to cancel a “missed opportunity.”

“We are puzzled by Mr. Tory’s cancellation for the waterfront debate,” Norman DiPasquale, Acting Chair of NoJetsTO, said in the release. “Citizens deserved to hear about Mr. Tory’s vision of the waterfront.”

The group claims to have a meeting set up with Tory in October and plans to “press” the mayoral candidate about his decision to cancel.

Tory has also backed out of an afternoon debate on senior-focused issues hosted by the Better Living Centre. That event was also later cancelled.

Tuesday is the second day in a row that Tory will be a no-show at debates he previously committed to attending.

On Monday, Olivia Chow ended up being the sole candidate at a debate organized by the TTCRiders and the Ryerson Students’ Union when Tory cancelled at the last minute.

Tory’s team told CP24 in an email on Monday that he had to cancel because of “extraordinary” demands on his time.

“With Doug Ford entering the race and less (than) six weeks to go until election day, we have entered a new phase of the campaign,” Amanda Galbraith, a spokesperson for Tory’s campaign, said. “John has attended 22 debates since the campaign began and he will attend many more before Oct. 27.”

TTCRiders Executive Director Jessica Bell said she was ‘furious’ with Tory for pulling out hours before the debate was scheduled to start.

“We spend weeks and weeks organizing this transit debate so that candidates can tell Toronto’s million daily riders where they stand on improving transit now and he doesn’t even have the courtesy to turn up,” she said. “It is extremely disrespectful, not only to organizers of this event, but to transit riders everywhere.”

Tory defends decision to drop out of debates:

During a news conference on Tory’s plan to fight gridlock, he said he has spoken to some of the organizers of the debates to make sure they have an opportunity to discuss their concerns with him.

“I had been to 22 debates before we missed that one and I was at a 23rd last night. I will be at many more moving forward and I think we have the next one tomorrow,” he said.

“Much of my time last night was spent with Ms. Chow discussing transportation issues. I’m sure that will continue to be the case going forward... I still view transportation and traffic as the biggest single priority in the election campaign. I will continue to debate that.”

Tory spent the Tuesday’s news conference reiterating previous points he has made about how he intends to improve traffic congestion in Toronto.

Tory said he plans to chair a “coordination committee” that will look at construction projects one year in advance to avoid unnecessary traffic tie-ups in the future.

“When we saw this year earlier on the closure of the Gardiner Expressway and the Lakeshore at the same time without any consideration for the inconveniencing of thousands of people, we saw yet again that coordination is not happening,” Tory said.

“I’m going to make it happen.”

Other priorities Tory outlined were getting construction projects done faster with round-the-clock construction contracts and a “zero tolerance” policy for delivery trucks parking on city streets during rush hour.