Premier Doug Ford has asked officials to “look into” a news report that claimed Therme Group “misrepresented itself, misleading the Ontario government” when it pitched building a spa at Ontario Place.
The Ford government selected Therme Group as its primary partner in redeveloping Ontario Place, a collection of manmade islands in the waterfront of downtown Toronto that the province controls, from over 30 groups that submitted proposals in 2019. Its selection of the little-known Austria-headquartered spa builder has been a recurring controversy for Ford’s Progressive Conservatives over the last few years.
In a story published on Wednesday, the New York Times spotlighted that while the company that’ll be redeveloping Ontario Place’s west island isn’t the only Europe-based Therme-branded spa business, it “became indistinguishable” from the other in CEO Robert Hanea’s “public discourse and … in submissions to the Ontario government.”
“In pitching itself to the world, Therme has misrepresented itself, misleading the Ontario government and exaggerating its experience in its bid to secure the Toronto deal,” reported the Times. The publication also noted that a Therme representative told it the company’s “wording could have been more precise, and that references to its success in Germany were meant to communicate that the concept of Therme had been successful.”
The “Therme” operation in Germany was — until a few months ago — owned by a different German-based Therme company. It was owned by Josef Wund, a businessman and architect behind several Therme-branded spas in Germany, who died in a 2017 plane crash. He and Hanea, CEO of the Austria-headquartered Therme Group, had been friends before Wund’s death. But their companies “had no business connection,” the Times reported.
This past December, Hanea’s company purchased the Therme spa in Erding, a town near Munich, in Germany.
For its part, Therme Canada — the Canadian arm of Hanea’s company that’s set to redevelop a chunk of Ontario Place — said in a statement on Wednesday that it and Wund’s company have had a longstanding “collaborative partnership” that was “formalized in 2019.”
“The 2024 acquisition of the Erding facility was a natural evolution of this long-standing relationship and the shared vision that shaped it,” said Therme Canada, which also said it’s “inaccurate” to say the company misrepresented itself to the government of Ontario.
The Trillium can confirm at least one instance of incorrect information being provided to the premier and his staff about the Therme company they were considering for the Toronto waterfront redevelopment, while they were still receiving submissions.
Government documents obtained using the freedom-of-information system show that officials in the Cabinet Office on Sept. 10, 2019 received a slide deck from staff in the Ministry of Tourism saying Therme operated “six facilities in two countries” — which it did not at the time. The slide deck was circulated ahead of a meeting between the then-minister of tourism and Ford, for her to update him on their search for possible Ontario Place redevelopment partners.
The records obtained by The Trillium do not show where the Ministry of Tourism got the information included in the slide deck.
Last year, the province’s auditor general’s office conducted an audit largely focused on the call for development process that led to the selection of Therme as the government’s main partner for its Ontario Place redevelopment. Its report also addressed the issue of the two Thermes.
“We found that (Infrastructure Ontario) did not conduct due diligence to ensure that spas cited by Therme in its submission were in fact owned and operated by Therme Group,” the auditor general’s report said.
“In its submission, Therme stated that ‘Therme Group has proven the success of its concept with six globally placed facilities under operation.’ We reviewed the six spas and found five instances where the spa cited in the submission was not owned or operated by Therme Group,” the report continued.
The auditor general’s report also noted that one of the six spas cited by Therme Group in its 2019 submission to the Ford government was the Wund-owned Erding facility. When the auditor’s office asked Therme Group about this last year, it said, “Therme Erding is under the operational ownership of the Wund family.”
Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and Therme Canada signed the lease agreement for Ontario Place’s west island in 2021.
The auditor general's report said its office asked IO if it had reviewed Therme Group’s organizational structure before signing the lease. The agency’s response, according to the auditor general’s report, was: “Regarding an assessment of Therme’s org structure, at the time of executing the lease, Therme Canada OP Inc. … was a newly formed company with fewer than 10 employees, so there was no comprehensive org structure to be assessed.”
While he was speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, Ford said he wanted officials to “look into” the Times’ reporting to “double and triple check the contract (with Therme) and … anything that was said in the story.” Ford dismissed, however, the suggestion that his government could potentially back out of its 95-year lease agreement with Therme.
“We want to build a beautiful facility down there … it’s going to be world class,” Ford said.
