Development of Ontario Place: NDP files complaint with Integrity Commissioner

The Ontario NDP has filed a complaint with the province’s Integrity Commissioner over the process that led to the hiring of an Austrian company to build a massive waterfront spa at Place de Ontario, alleging the process was riddled with special treatment.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in an interview that she has many questions about how the call to expand the attraction evolved to include a 2,500-space parking lot paid for by taxpayers, as well than on the role that the repeated contacts of certain lobbyists played in the final conditions. of the 95-year lease.

“We are deeply concerned about what appears to be a pattern of preferential treatment,” Stiles said.

“I think there is enough evidence now that we have seen the lease that we obtained and other additional information through freedom of information to demonstrate that there is a reason for the Commissioner to “Integrity digs a little deeper,” she said.

On the same day, some 850 trees were felled on the property this month, and the provincial government released its lease with spa company Therme, after a long freedom of information battle involving several organizations, including CTV News .

The documents said the deal with Therme would raise about $2 billion over its 95-year term, but the province was also required to provide Therme with 1,200 parking spaces in a parking lot expected to include 2,500 spaces.

If the government does not provide this land, it will have to pay a penalty of $5 per space per day, for a total of approximately $2.2 million per year – which in some years of the contract would be higher at Therme rent.

In NDP filings seen by CTV News, the party alleges the process for granting this lease was different from other procurement processes in that there was no fairness monitor and that no independent third party had been appointed to oversee the appeal. for development.

The party also highlighted FOI documents according to which a lobbyist working for Therme emailed a member of the bid evaluation team to warn them of impending media coverage on July 17, 2020.

In the documents, the NDP says the province’s auditor general found that parking costs, estimated at the time at $307 million, were arbitrarily excluded from the business case for moving the Science Center of Ontario at Ontario Place.

If costs had been included, it would have been cheaper to repair and maintain the OSC in its Flemingdon Park neighborhood than to move and build a new facility, the party claims.

The Integrity Commissioner, J. David Wake, has the authority to investigate complaints received from an MP regarding the activities of another MP.

In this case, Stiles files a complaint against the Minister of Infrastructure, Kinga Surma. Wake has the option to investigate or not.

Wake’s investigations played a key role in uncovering links between connected developers in the province’s protected greenbelt and two ministers, leading to their resignations last year.

“We know this government has kept this integrity commissioner very busy. Unfortunately, he has a lot to do. But it’s a very important issue, and I think it’s in the public interest for the integrity commissioner to investigate,” Stiles said.