The Ontario NDP has asked the provincial auditor to investigate the government's Ontario Place development deal with an Austrian company that builds upscale spas and water parks.
Leader Marit Stiles wrote to auditor general Bonnie Lysyk asking her to conduct a "compliance investigation and a value-for-money audit" of the government's plans that are set to cost hundreds of millions in public funds and result in a private company controlling a controversial new marquee attraction on the land.
"We care about making sure that the land is publicly accessible — not just today — but in perpetuity," NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam said Friday at Queen's Park, where they and MPP Chris Glover publicized Stiles' request to the auditor general.
"We care about public accountability for hard-paid tax dollars," Wong-Tam said.
Stiles' request echoes an earlier one that three advocacy groups opposing Therme's plans wrote the auditor about in early December.
The letter to Lysyk from representatives of Ontario Place for All, Waterfront for All and Architectural Conservancy Ontario alleges that the Ford government improperly ignored the province's environmental responsibilities and that Therme's plans will inflict "irreversible costs" on the value of the public land.
Diane Chin, chair of the Architectural Conservancy Ontario, told The Trillium on Friday that in January she had met virtually with Lysyk, and that Lysyk seemed to be considering the organizations' request for an audit.
The Trillium sent questions to the auditor general's office on Friday but hadn't received responses by the time this story was published. The Trillium also emailed Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma's office on Friday, asking for a response to the claims made by the groups, but didn't receive a response by the time this story was published.
The multinational Therme Group launched Therme Canada in conjunction with the Ford government selecting it as the company that'll play the biggest part in redeveloping Ontario Place.
Ontario Place sits on a group of man-made islands on Toronto's waterfront in the western part of its downtown, close to BMO Field and the Exhibition Place, where the Canadian National Exhibition is held.
The land is owned by the provincial government. It currently includes park space and several entertainment venues, including the Budweiser Stage amphitheatre, and the Cinesphere theatre, which first opened in 1971. Therme, with which the government has signed a "long-term ground lease," is responsible for the largest section of the redevelopment: Ontario Place's west island, where the Cinesphere theatre is built.
Therme's plans have been closely watched and scrutinized.
The latest iteration is being reviewed by Toronto's city council, which the provincial government has consulted with throughout the planning of the project.
Therme wants to build a private water park and spa, along with an underground garage for more than 2,000 cars that also connects Therme's facilities to the renovated Live Nation amphitheatre. Almost 850 trees will need to be cut down to allow for the private complex. The Globe and Mail has reported that the parking lot alone could cost $450 million.
Therme's plans also include renovating almost 12 acres of land that'll remain public and include parkland, gathering spaces and beach space.
The Ontario government's website says the Ontario Place redevelopment will attract "a private sector investment of $500 million." Through their completion, the site's redevelopment is also estimated to cost around $200 million in public funds, according to an Infrastructure Ontario report from November 2022.
