Ontario Premier Orders Review of Major Toronto Waterfront Lease
The premier of Ontario on Wednesday said that he had asked his government to look into a deal that the province signed with a European wellness company to develop and operate a spa and water park off Toronto's coveted waterfront.
Premier Doug Ford's request that the lease be re-examined came after a New York Times investigation found that the company, Therme, had overstated its experience during the bidding process.
After the yearslong process, the province signed a nearly century-long lease last year with the Austrian-based company to develop an artificial island just off the coast of downtown Toronto in Lake Ontario.
'When I heard this, this allegation, I went directly to the minister and to the deputy and said, 'Here, look into this',' Mr. Ford told the news media in Toronto on Wednesday.
'I just want to double- and triple-check the contract,' Mr. Ford said. 'We'll look into it, make sure everything passes a smell test.'
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the bidding process, the company owned and operated only one wellness facility, in Romania, outside Bucharest. But the Times investigation found that it had claimed to be running four to six facilities in Europe in its submissions to the Ontario government.
The misstatement of Therme's actual experience was first raised in an in-depth audit of the deal by Ontario's auditor general that was released late last year.
The Times investigation found that the company had, over the course of several years, presented itself as one and the same as a bigger, older, well-known German firm by the same name that does operate several water parks.
The two companies both told The Times that they had a 'knowledge-sharing agreement.'
A representative for Therme said that its wording could have been more precise, and that references to its success in Germany were meant to communicate that the plan's concept had been successful.
Therme's statements about its experience weighed significantly in Ontario's decision to grant it the Toronto lease, The Times investigation found. Therme bought one of the German spas late last year.
'I understand they're all one company, so one bought the other company,' Mr. Ford said on Wednesday. 'So I guess they're a larger, stronger company, but they're going to look into this allegation.'
Therme did not buy the German Therme, they are not one company, and the acquisition of the single German spa happened well after it submitted its bid to the Ontario government and won the lease.
The project on Toronto's high-value waterfront has been an ongoing saga for the Ford government, which has faced resistance from local residents who wanted to preserve the space as a public park.
In October, the province cut down more than 800 trees on the land to prepare it for handing over to Therme. Therme is contractually obligated to begin construction by next spring; it has not yet secured outside financing for the project.
The development has been long criticized by Ontario opposition parties. Marit Stiles, the opposition leader in the Ontario legislature, called for the agreement to be canceled.
'I think it's better to get this over with now and cancel the deal, and we've been saying that since Day 1,' Ms. Stiles said on Wednesday. She added: 'Look, Ontario never asked for this. That land was being put to good public use.'
Mr. Ford said canceling the contract was not on the table.
'This is going to be something spectacular at the end of the day,' he said. 'It'll be the No. 1 one tourist attraction, I say in the country, next to Niagara Falls.'
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