The Ford government has submitted a motion to have a court challenge to its Ontario Place redevelopment plans thrown out.
Government lawyers filed a motion to quash an effort by the advocacy group Ontario Place for All to force the province into an environmental assessment of its plans to build on the waterfront site.
As part of its plans to redevelop Ontario Place, the province has signed a 95-year lease with Austrian spa giant Therme. The plan has raised claims the government is privatizing public land from some advocacy groups and political opponents.
In an attempt to slow down or stop the plan, Ontario Place for All asked an Ontario judge to review the province’s decision not to complete a detailed review of how its spa plan could impact local ecosystems.
Ford government lawyers are now arguing that the judicial review should be thrown out.
The province’s motion relies on its recently passed Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, which handed the government new powers over the land and exempted it from various studies.
Government lawyers argued “it is plain and obvious” that Ontario Place is now exempted from environmental assessment requirements “even if the pleaded allegations are taken as true” since the new law came into effect.
“The Application is moot, as there is no longer a live controversy between the parties given that the dispute has been overtaken by events following the commencement of the litigation,” the motion argues.
The Ontario NDP said the new law and legal filings show the province will “stop at nothing” to build a spa at Ontario Place.
“The Conservatives rewrote the laws and stripped Ontarians of the right to hold the government accountable for this project,” Chris Glover, MPP for Spadina-Fort York, said.
The government has been working hard to improve perceptions of its plans for Ontario Place.
During the first half of 2023, the government budgeted more than $2 million to “raise awareness” of its vision for Ontario Place “in response to some early negative sentiment toward limited aspects of the plan.”
The government has repeatedly defended its plans for Ontario Place, saying the attraction has effectively been abandoned for years.
“We are breathing new life into Ontario Place, creating an iconic tourist destination that will unite friends and families in Ontario and draw visitors from across the globe for generations to come,” Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma previously said.
A spokesperson for Ontario Place for All said the group was “disappointed that government is steamrolling Ontarians’ rights” with the legislation.
“We are simply asking the government to follow its own laws and conduct an Environmental Assessment of West Island,” they said.
The auditor general is in the midst of a review of the Ontario Place redevelopment.
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