One of Toronto’s most iconic landmarks could soon be replaced.

The City of Toronto will be issuing a Request for Proposals next week as it begins the process of finding a permanent, more durable replacement for the Toronto sign in Nathan Phillips Square.

In a news release, the city said that it wants the new sign to be “a replica of the original” but one which is made of waterproof material, is easier to clean and includes “lighting capacity and other creative features to support public engagement and interaction.”

The city is hoping to have the new sign installed by the end of 2019.

“This sign was installed for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games and was never meant to be a permanent fixture but it has become iconic,” City Spokesperson Brad Ross told CP24 on Thursday. “Over the first six months of its installation back in 2015 Tourism Toronto told us that there was more than 122 million impressions on social media. Take that over five years and really you can’t buy that kind of exposure for the city. So we need to make it a permanent structure.”

Ross said that the Toronto sign gets more annual visitors than any other attractions in the city, save for the CN Tower and the Eaton Centre.

He said that the current sign, however, was only meant to last for a few weeks and has cost the city $400,000 just to maintain over the years.

“It is not water resistant as much as it ought to be, it is not graffiti resistant and the lighting infrastructure inside the sign needs to be upgraded significantly because it is used for a number of events,” he said. “It is important that this icon become permanent and so we are going out to the market to find someone who can do that work, have a maintenance contract in place and if there is partnerships or philanthropy involved to help pay for it for example that is something we are also open to.”

The city has said that it will keep the sign’s maple leaf, which was installed in 2017 to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, and the medicine wheel which was added in 2018 in recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The city says that it plans to pay for the new sign using its reserve funds.