The Ford government has formally ruled out a second phase in its Ontario Place development, promising it will not pave over any part of the surrounding lake after documents revealed it had, at one point, considered the move.
New documents obtained by the Ontario NDP revealed government briefings considering a second phase to the redevelopment of Ontario Place that could have filled a small patch of water
On Wednesday, Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma didn’t directly deny the plan during question period or when speaking to reporters.
On Thursday, Surma said there were no current plans for a second phase of the Ontario Place redevelopment or to fill any portion of Lake Ontario.
“Let me be very clear: there is no phase two, there is no paving of Brigantine Cove,” she said in response to a question from Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles. “What we decided to do, Mr. Speaker, was to instead expand the public realm to 50 acres.”
The same trove of government schematics obtained by the NDP using freedom of information laws labelled land on the west island as a “waterpark attraction” in January 2020, months after bidding on the land closed and just under a year and a half before Therme was formally announced as the tenant for the land.
Stiles called the document “quite the coincidence” asking the government to explain when it decided on Ontario Place’s successful bidders.
“I’m happy to repeat myself — again,” Surma replied.
“Twenty-nineteen: we did a call for development where we encouraged people to participate in the process; and in 2021 we picked our partners, which were Therme and Live Nation; and in April of 2023, Mr. Speaker, we presented the whole vision of Ontario Place.”
The Jan. 17, 2020, slide Stiles referred to — which says it is “illustrative only” at the top — was used to help the decision-making process around redeveloping Ontario Place, a spokesperson for Surma told Global News.
“Please refer to the slide in question — which outlines that it is illustrative only and was used to aid in the decision-making process,” they said.
Reimaging Toronto’s waterfront
In May 2019, the Ford government launched a process calling for bids and proposals from a range of companies, asking them to lay out their vision to revitalize the beleaguered Ontario Place site on Toronto’s waterfront.
“Our government promised to move quickly to bring Ontario Place back to life and we are delivering on that promise,” Ontario’s then-minister of tourism, culture and sport said at the time.
“We are inviting partners from around the world to submit their designs and ideas for a reimagined Ontario Place.”
That process closed roughly four months later in September.
Around December 2019, officials completed a document titled “Ontario Place Call for Development Assessment Report.”
According to a heavily redacted extract from that report, obtained by Global News through a freedom of information request, several spas and other companies were among the bidders who answered the government’s call.
Other companies from Therme that bid included Cirque du Soleil, Strom Nordic Spa, Badenhaüs Spa and two other projects titled OP Adventure Park and The McLuhanesque Experience.
With a list of 34 suitors completed between September and December 2019 for the Ontario Place lands — including but not limited to spas — the government appears to have quickly labelled Ontario Place’s west island as a potential “waterpark attraction.”
A spokesperson for Surma confirmed the request for companies to pitch their ideas didn’t specify a water-based attraction.
“On May 28, 2019, the Ontario Government launched a formal Call for Development for the redevelopment of Ontario Place,” they said. “The Call document did not prescribe West Island as a water park.”
The opposition, however, says they believe the slide “raises questions” over how the final decisions around Ontario Place’s redevelopment were made.
“What it indicates is that they were looking at a waterpark and it may indicate that Therme was already chosen as the one that was going to get the deal even though the process was still underway,” Ontario NDP MPP Chris Glover suggested.
Therme was one of a number of spa and water-based proposals outlined for Ontario Place, with others including Nordic and Budenhaus.
The government said it had “been transparent” over its Ontario Place plans, linking to the 2021 announcement that Therme would be one of its partners in the project.
“We announced the selection of Therme as development partners on July 30th, 2021, following a call for development issued in May, 2019 and which closed in September 2019,” the spokesperson said, stressing the slide was, “illustrative only.”
There would be no rules against selecting Therme as the successful bidder for Ontario Place within a few months of bids closing, with contract negotiations and due diligence potentially taking months.
Transparency questions continue
The full list of companies that bid to rebuild the land labelled as a “waterfront attraction” in early 2020 is not publicly available.
Global News has been engaged in a protracted transparency appeal with Infrastructure Ontario over the 2019 Ontario Place Call for Development Assessment Report.
A request lodged in April 2023 for the document was replied to in August, with the Crown agency refusing to reveal any of the document’s contents. Officials claimed that releasing the lengthy and technical report would reveal cabinet deliberations, advice to government and harm the province’s economic interests.
An appeal to that decision was lodged by Global News in August 2023, leading to ongoing negotiations. Infrastructure Ontario recently agreed to release a list of seven of the 34 bidders for Ontario Place without explaining why the seven were selected and the rest of the report was withheld.
Glover said he wanted to see more transparency from the government over how it came to settle on its vision for Ontario Place, including releasing the closely-guarded details of its lease with Therme.
Global News’ appeal to obtain the full list of Ontario Place bidders, their proposals and the government’s evaluation of them is ongoing.
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