Ontario’s official Opposition has lodged a complaint with the province’s integrity commissioner demanding an investigation into alleged “irregularities” in the plan to build a private spa at Ontario Place.
The complaint alleges Therme received preferential treatment from the government in its successful bid to land a 95-year lease for a large spa on Toronto’s waterfront.
It asks the integrity commissioner to investigate Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma’s potential role.
“Over the past two years, we have collected evidence suggesting a deeply troubling pattern of behaviour surrounding the Ford government’s deal with Therme,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a statement.
“We have reason to believe that Therme received preferential treatment from this government when they were awarded the 95-year-long lease to build a luxury spa at Ontario Place.”
At the beginning of the month, the government released the lease it had signed with Therme, an Austrian spa company that is leading the redevelopment of the Ontario Place west island.
The lease included roughly $2 billion in rent and maintenance fees Therme will pay over the 95-year lease, while the government will be on the hook for 1,800 parking spaces or face a fine of $5 per space, per day that it is not built.
The lease can be ended either before construction begins or 10 years after the spa opens but it requires five years’ notice, a new location for Therme, financial penalties and the demolition of the spa structure by the government.
In her letter and affidavit to the integrity commissioner, Stiles said she believed the call for development to overhaul Ontario Place had issues with “fairness and integrity,” also questioning the publicly funded parking spaces Therme will receive in the deal.
Stiles claimed that, as the minister in charge of the file, Surma is “ultimately responsible” and should be the subject of an investigation.
A spokesperson for Surma pointed out she was not the infrastructure minister when the deal was signed but said she was looking forward to “assisting” the integrity commissioner.
“Unlike the Opposition Leader, I have too much respect for the Commissioner to play politics with his office,” Surma said in a written statement.
“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.”
Surma’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication but the government has repeatedly said its revitalization will transform the waterfront.
“Our government is proud to have Therme Canada as a development partner on this once‐in‐a‐generation project,” Surma said after the lease was released.
Over a 10-page complaint, Stiles said she felt there had been irregularities with how the Ontario Place redevelopment call for development was handed, including terms that said it was “not a binding process, nor a formal competitive bidding process.”
Stiles also claimed there were problems with how Therme’s lease agreement was evaluated and said lobbyists for Therme were in touch with the government when they should not have been. The complaint focuses on the decision to move the Ontario Science Centre and to close the attraction over issues with its roofing panels as well.
Stiles said the integrity commissioner should launch a formal investigation into Surma’s role because an MPP should not participate in making decisions “if the member knows or reasonably should know that in the making of the decision there is an opportunity for further member’s private interests or improperly further another person’s private interests.”
The integrity commissioner’s office said the request was “under review.”
A report from the integrity commissioner into the Greenbelt land swap released last summer, alongside a similar investigation from the auditor general, sparked a crisis that led to the resignation of two ministers and several senior staff.
The integrity commissioner does not investigate all the complaints sent to him and is not compelled to do so simply because an MPP has asked.
Other requests by the NDP, including into Premier Doug Ford’s stag and doe party, have been declined.