Ford’s spa-obsessed Conservatives play games to keep their 95-year, $650M Ontario Place deal a secret

QUEEN’S PARK – Ford’s spa-obsessed Conservatives voted to proceed with their 95-year, $650 million private luxury spa at Ontario Place today, playing legislative games to prematurely end debate to avoid answering questions on their secret deal.

“Ontarians need to know how much and why their taxpayer dollars are going to a private company so they can build a luxury spa on public park land,” said Marit Stiles, the Leader of the Official Opposition NDP.

“The last thing this government needs is another criminal investigation,” Stiles said. “We gave the Ford Conservatives an opportunity to take a step back and do the right thing – cancel this ridiculous deal, get realistic about revitalizing this important park, keep public spaces public, and stop the pattern of preferential treatment and backroom deals.

This government was so scared of a debate on their secret luxury spa deal that they would not even let it go to a vote in the Legislature.

Once again, Ford’s Conservatives are putting their private interests – above helping people struggling with the affordability crisis.

But just like the Greenbelt Grab, Ontario’s Official Opposition will not give up.”

Stiles had tabled a motion to cancel the 95-year-long lease that the Ford Conservatives awarded to Therme, an Austrian luxury spa corporation, a lease the government continues to keep secret.

Minister of Infrastructure Kinga Surma failed to answer why Ontario Place’s legally required annual reports haven’t been filed, why she has been hiding attendance numbers, or whether Therme was given preferential treatment through a rigged process.

Earlier today, the Ontario NDP revealed new documents that raise questions about whether Therme was given preferential treatment, pointing to the pattern of behaviour seen within the ranks of the Ford government.