As deliberations continue over how spots for more than 1,000 cars to park near Ontario Place will be built, Premier Doug Ford suggested Thursday that the provincial government intends to save money by building them above ground.
In its lease signed with Therme, the provincial government agreed to provide it with 1,600 parking spots within 650 metres of the entrance to its spa and waterpark. The spaces can be shared with concert-goers to Budweiser Stage, which Live Nation operates. The entertainment company was guaranteed 1,200 spots in its lease, which The Trillium obtained portions of.
The Ford government’s commitment to Therme came after it originally told bidders via its Ontario Place call for development document to “consider the adequacy of parking” already constructed there. Therme was among a number of the 34 Ontario Place redevelopment proponents that suggested more parking at, or near, Ontario Place be added.
Therme had offered to pay for new parking but Infrastructure Ontario ultimately recommended that the government manage a new facility, the province’s auditor general wrote in a report last week.
Under its lease with Therme, if the provincial government hasn’t by 2030 built the parking it promised, it must pay the company $5 per day for every spot short, for a potential maximum of $8,000 per day or $240,000 per month. The Ford government, after committing to adding new parking, first planned to build an underground lot beneath Ontario Place.
It changed those plans as part of an agreement reached with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow a year ago. The two governments have been in talks ever since about where, exactly, to locate the new parking at Exhibition Place — the mainland area that Ontario Place connects to, which has long been city-controlled.
“I don’t believe we’re going to be spending a fortune on an underground garage … we just don’t need it,” the premier said at a news conference on Thursday.
Ford was responding to a reporter who asked him about the projected cost to taxpayers of the overall redevelopment, which the auditor general reported last week was estimated by Infrastructure Ontario earlier this year to be over $2.2 billion. The provincial infrastructure agency estimated as of May 2024 that providing the parking owed to tenants would “be from $280 to over $400 million,” according to the auditor general’s report.
A final decision hasn’t been made about the style of parking facility that’ll be built, or where it’ll be located, according to multiple of the parties involved in the deliberations.
Don Boyle, CEO of the City of Toronto agency that manages and operates Exhibition Place, told The Trillium on Thursday that his organization has “provided options” to the provincial government, which it’s waiting to hear back about.
“Our position is that any new parking structure should be entirely underground to ensure highest and best use of land for residents, visitors, and Exhibition Place’s users,” said deputy mayor and Coun. Ausma Malik, chair of the board of Exhibition Place, on Thursday. “We know there is a viable underground option, and that is why we took that position.”
In her statement, Malik added, “If the province values investments in our waterfront, they won’t build a massive above-ground parking lot on it.”
Darrell Brown, CEO of the Canadian National Exhibition Association (CNEA), said in a phone interview on Thursday that above-ground parking would take up “programmable space.”
The CNEA is one of Exhibition Place’s major tenants and runs the Canadian National Exhibition that’s held there at the end of every summer.
“Anytime you look at (surface parking), you also have to look at how it affects any kind of programming you have to do on site,” Brown said.
The CNEA has also made multiple different proposals for underground parking at Exhibition Place.
Ford, on Thursday, also brushed aside concerns over the overall projected cost to taxpayers of the Ontario Place redevelopment.
“That’s a cost estimate … Let’s find out when the total bill comes in,” the premier said. “But let’s talk about all the revenues that will come in when we build a premium, state-of-the-art science centre and state-of-the-art Ontario Place.”
Documents Infrastructure Ontario released a couple of months ago showed it was planning then to build a parking facility with 2,500 spots, which would also serve the relocated Ontario Science Centre.
—With files from Aidan Chamandy
