Auditor general probing Ford government’s Ontario Place redevelopment

The province’s auditor general is moving ahead with value-for-money audits of the Ford government’s controversial Ontario Place redevelopment and its decision to relocate the Ontario Science Centre to Toronto’s waterfront. 

A spokesperson for the auditor general’s office confirmed the investigations to CBC Toronto on Friday. The news was first reported by Global. 

“As these audits are currently in progress, we cannot comment on them further,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Premier Doug Ford and his government have faced considerable public opposition to their Ontario Place plan, which includes a long-term lease on the site’s West Island for Austria-based company Therme to build a sprawling, private indoor water park and spa.

The updated development application, submitted to the City of Toronto this fall, also includes roughly 16 acres of public parkland on the West Island, including a new beach, boardwalk and cycling trails. 

The province has earmarked some $650 million in public funds for infrastructure upgrades across the Ontario Place grounds and a new 2,000-space underground parking garage, in addition to 600 new ground-level spaces, it says is necessary to accommodate visitors to the redeveloped site.

Ford announced in April that the Ontario Science Centre, currently located in northeast Toronto, would be moved to the Ontario Place grounds as part of the wider redevelopment. 

The request for an auditor general’s probe into the province’s plan was made by Ontario Place for All, the primary group organizing public opposition to the project. NDP Leader Marit Stiles also wrote a letter in support of the group’s request.

“So glad the auditor general has agreed to our request to audit the rushed and secretive process that is leading to the ruin of Ontario Place and the Science Centre,” Ontario Place for All said on X, formerly called Twitter, in response to news of the audits.

Stiles said the New Democrats welcome the audits. 

“People know this is a bad deal for Ontario, and I’m confident the Auditor General’s report will confirm that,” she said in a statement that also called for site preparation work at Ontario Place, which began in earnest this fall, to be put on hold until the investigations are complete.

Last month, the NDP tabled a motion in the legislature calling for the lease with Therme to be cancelled, but it was voted down by the Progressive Conservatives.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and several city councillors, including Spadina-Fort York Coun. Ausma Malik, whose ward includes the Ontario Place grounds, have also said they are opposed to the province’s redevelopment plan. 

CBC Toronto has reached out to Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma’s office for comment on the auditor general’s probe.

While promoting the government’s decision to relocate the Ontario Science Centre, Kinga has repeatedly said that a business case showed it was the right move. She has thus far declined to make that case public.

Ford’s government has spent the last several months mired in controversy after an auditor general’s report into its Greenbelt land swaps precipitated the resignations of two cabinet ministers and several high-level government staffers.