Ontario Place redevelopment slammed as unfair, subjective in auditor general report

A European company developing a spa and waterpark at Ontario Place got special access to provincial executives during a submission process that was not fair or transparent, Ontario’s auditor general said Tuesday in her annual report.

Auditor general Shelley Spence also found that it will now cost more for the government to build a new Ontario Science Centre at Ontario Place than it would have to maintain the site it abruptly closed earlier this year.

Three participants in the Ontario Place call for development process attended meetings with the premier’s office and other political staff, even though that was against the government’s own rules, Spence found.

One of those participants was the ultimately successful bidder Therme, whose planned spa and waterpark has faced a lot of criticism. The company communicated with a vice-president at Infrastructure Ontario, Spence wrote.

“The VP at IO exchanged nine emails and held one call with Therme’s legal counsel on media interest about Therme’s involvement in the (call for development) process, an introduction to the transaction adviser and an invitation to an event at the legal counsel’s firm,” Spence wrote.

“By communicating with only some participants during the open period, in contravention with the (call for development), there is a risk that the process is not perceived as transparent, accountable and fair to all participants.”

Therme Group wrote in a statement that the bid process was clear and any questions they had were answered within the process before the deadline.

“Therme Group followed (Infrastructure Ontario’s) process and fully complied with its requirements at every stage in our submission and negotiations,” the company wrote.

The government’s process for assessing all of the proposals was also irregular and subjective, Spence concluded.

The four main areas used to assess proposals weren’t assigned weights, so the overall scores of those evaluating the projects varied significantly, the auditor said.

She also found that the cost estimate for building and maintaining a new science centre at Ontario Place has increased by nearly $400 million from the government’s spring 2023 business case for relocating it, meaning it will cost approximately $1.4 billion — higher than the $1.3-billion estimate for maintaining the attraction at its east Toronto location.

The increase is due to higher design and construction costs, life cycle and maintenance costs, and ancillary costs that have added up because of changes to the scope of the planned building and cost escalations, Spence wrote.

As of February 2024, Infrastructure Ontario projected the total cost of the Ontario Place redevelopment to be $2.2 billion, the auditor said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Premier Doug Ford is determined to see the Ontario Place redevelopment through as his “vanity project,” no matter the cost. The approach the government has taken with the redevelopment process is typical of Ford’s general approach to governing, she said.

“It’s a government that just rams through whatever they want,” she said.

“They just do whatever they want with no consideration for the rules, for accountability, for transparency, and frankly, for what the data and the science is telling them. This is a government that’s off the rails, and they’re doing whatever they want at enormous expense to the people of Ontario.”

Spence also found in another section of her annual report that the government did not provide an evidence-based business case for closing 10 drug-consumption sites and replacing them with treatment hub locations, and failed to consult with affected people.

As well, she found that the government’s process for granting Minister’s Zoning Orders — overriding municipal bylaws to speed up development — gives the appearance of preferential treatment for some requests. And she said the government is spending tens of millions of dollars on publicly funded ads that are more partisan than informational.

Ford’s government has already faced a lot of criticism over the redevelopment of Ontario Place, from the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre, to the awarding of contracts, to the destruction of trees there.

The government has a 95-year lease with Therme for its planned attraction and it shows the province has promised 1,600 parking spaces for the private facility. Spence’s report pegged the parking costs at more than $280 million.

An auditor general report last year suggested Ontario’s obligations to provide parking for Therme factored into its decision to relocate the science centre from east Toronto to the redeveloped Ontario Place attraction, a move that would help dispel public concerns about the project as a whole.

Ontario Place, which first opened in 1971, was closed to the public in 2012 after years of financial losses.