Ontario's official Opposition leader is asking the province's integrity commissioner to investigate whether the infrastructure minister broke ethics laws by selecting Therme as the main redeveloper of Ontario Place.
In her request, NDP Leader Marit Stiles alleges Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma has given Therme “preferential treatment” throughout the Ford government’s process to partner with private companies to reshape Ontario Place.
Stiles’ complaint to Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake’s office includes a letter and a nine-page-long affidavit based on over 1,000 pages of documentary evidence. Records Stiles cites as evidence include procurement documents, the government’s lease agreement with Therme, news releases and transcripts of statements made by Surma and other officials, records the NDP uncovered using freedom-of-information requests, and news reports by The Trillium and other outlets.
Stiles claims in her affidavit that there were “irregularities” in the call-for-development of Ontario Place, the following evaluation process, the Therme lease agreement, and contact between a Therme lobbyist and a member of the bid evaluation team. It also alleges “irregularities” in the government’s decision-making process concerning the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre and the justification for its move.
Stiles alleges in her affidavit that Surma “may have breached” two sections of the Member’s Integrity Act on advancing private interests.
In her letter to Wake, Stiles compares her request to the one that prompted his investigation into the Greenbelt land removals. Wake concluded in his Greenbelt report that then-housing minister Steve Clark violated similar sections of the ethics law for MPPs.
“Evidence suggests that Therme received preferential treatment, and its private interests were improperly furthered, as a result of decisions for which Minister Kinga Surma is ultimately responsible,” Stiles wrote in her letter to Wake.
“Billions of dollars and a cherished public asset are at stake,” Stiles said in a statement on Thursday. “We are bringing our case to the integrity commissioner so we can finally get some answers on this shady scheme.”
Surma said in a statement on Thursday afternoon, "Though I was not minister at the time (Therme was selected to redevelop Ontario Place), I am the minister now."
Premier Doug Ford appointed Surma as infrastructure minister in June 2021, at which point the government was about midway through its Ontario Place lease negotiations with Therme.
"I look forward to assisting the Integrity Commissioner," Surma added. "Unlike the Opposition Leader, I have too much respect for the Commissioner to play politics with his office."
"I will continue to focus my efforts on getting shovels in the ground to make Ontario Place a place that families can enjoy once again."
Irregularities-a-plenty (allegedly)
Stiles’ affidavit to the integrity commissioner weaves through events of the last five-and-a-half years that have shaped the still early-stage redevelopment of Ontario Place.
She claims Surma was complicit in “irregularities” with processes leading to the government’s selection of Therme as the Ontario Place West Island redeveloper and the signing of an up-to-95-year lease for the company to operate and manage the site.
The Ontario NDP has long been raising alarms publicly about much of what’s included in Stiles’ complaint to the integrity commissioner.
For instance, in claiming that Therme received “preferential treatment,” Stiles raises concerns about the Ford government’s call for development launched in 2019. The government’s decision to extend the deadline midway through seemed to benefit Therme, Stiles alleges in her affidavit. She also questions whether it was a truly competitive process.
Stiles also calls into question whether the company followed a broad no-lobbying rule that the government set during the call for development, based on contact Therme-hired lobbyists and government officials had around the time the company was first told it was a preferred proponent.
One of the NDP’s fresh revelations is of a government record from six months before then — Jan. 20, 2020, also roughly four months after the extended deadline of its call for development process — showing a “Waterpark Attraction” traced like Therme’s on the west island.
In her request to the integrity commissioner, Stiles also zeroes in on deviations from the government’s original offer to proponents to revisions made since, such as plans to add new taxpayer-covered parking nearby, which were favourable for Therme.
As well, Stiles challenges the legitimacy of the Ford government’s justifications for slowing — and eventually shutting down — operations of the Ontario Science Centre, including the reliability of reports it’s leaned on.
The NDP leader also highlights in her affidavit the various times that Surma or other government officials provided seemingly conflicting statements about the Ontario Place redevelopment plans.
In what’s an unusual move in a Member’s Integrity Act complaint, Stiles also listed four individuals in her affidavit as “people who might have pertinent information regarding the Ontario Place redevelopment and connected events.”
Mark Saunders, former Toronto police chief who served as the government’s “special adviser” on the redevelopment of Ontario Place from 2021 to 2022 before running as a Progressive Conservative Party candidate, is one.
As is Carmine Nigro, a friend of the premier's who chaired the Ontario Place Corporation from 2022 until the end of last year.
Another is Mark Lawson, a former deputy chief of staff and head of policy in Ford’s office who has worked for Therme Canada since 2022.
The last is Adrian Ion, an executive for Therme Group, who works for the company overseas. Ion has been at the centre of an unsubstantiated theory posted about on social media, largely by opponents of Therme’s part in redeveloping Ontario Place, attempting to draw a connection between the company and Deco Labels, Ford’s family’s company.
In her affidavit, Stiles states that Ion worked for Ares Management until September 2019, the month the Ford government’s Ontario Place call for development closed. His LinkedIn profile also says that’s when he left the company to join Therme Group as an executive based in its London, England office. U.K. corporate records indicate he became a director of one of Therme Group’s London-registered companies on Sept. 29, 2019.
Ontario’s auditor general wrote in a report last year that Ford government “decision-makers” approved its initial Ontario Place redevelopment plan, including Therme’s involvement, in May 2020. A Therme Canada spokesperson previously told The Trillium that the government informed the company that it was “a preferred proponent and invited (it) to negotiate an agreement with the government of Ontario” in July 2020. Those negotiations ultimately led the government to approve leasing Ontario Place’s west island to Therme for up to 95 years in April 2022.
Six months later, and almost three years after Ion left Ares Management, which is a global investment company managing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets, one of its subsidiaries purchased the Chicago branch of the Ford family’s label-making business, which Stiles’ affidavit mentions.
The NDP leader’s affidavit does not explain why any distant connection between the premier’s former company and a U.K.-based Therme executive’s previous employer would indicate he has any information relevant to Ontario Place.
Therme Canada said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) last year that “there have been no ties of any kind or business dealings between Therme and Ares Management or its subsidiaries.”
“Suggestions that Therme has been involved in any unethical or improper activity are entirely false and defamatory,” it added.
A spokesperson for the integrity commissioner’s office said in an email on Thursday morning that Stiles’ request “is under review.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:59 p.m. on Thurs., Oct. 17.
