Doug Ford sneaks exemptions for Ontario Place construction into unrelated new law

Just when one may think that the public's confidence in the provincial government and its Ontario Place revitalization project could not get any lower, shady new particulars of Doug Ford's deal with megaspa brand Therme keep coming to light.

First, there were the multiple leaks about the site's taxpayer-funded parking garage that Ford and his team appeared to try and conceal, along with the news of the project being exempt from environmental assessments and noise bylaws, shocking cost-benefit analyses that show immense losses for the Province, and more.

Then last week, a damning New York Times investigation exposed how Austria-based Therme successfully misrepresented itself and exaggerated its reputation to the Province while only having $1.1 million in equity and one single wellness facility under its belt (on top of essentially stealing its branding from a competitor, with which its business has become deliberately confused).

Now, another dismaying update: a subsection of a new piece of legislation that will permit the Ontario Place scheme to go ahead without the public participation in government decision-making that is usually required by law.

Bill 5: Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025, tabled on April 17, is being positioned in press releases as a means to reduce red tape to expedite critical mineral and resource development projects and benefit the economy.

Amid the document's 67 pages, though, is a somewhat random three-line clause rewriting a portion of the existing Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, 2023, which governs the controversial redevelopment of the 155-acre waterfront property.

"The Schedule amends the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, 2023 to provide that Part II of the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 does not apply to a proposal to issue, amend or revoke an instrument related to the Ontario Place Redevelopment Project or any enterprise or activity that furthers the Project," Bill 5 states.

Flipping to said part in the Environmental Bill of Rights, one will find that it exists to "set out minimum levels of public participation that must be met before the Government of Ontario makes decisions on certain kinds of environmentally significant proposals for policies, Acts, regulations and instruments."

So, more usually-crucial environmental regulations deemed not applicable to this specific large-scale redevelopment — especially enraging given that the skipped protections also have to do with gaining valuable input from a public who, at this point, are largely opposed to the project for many reasons beyond just environmental concerns.

As advocacy group Ontario Place for All wrote in response to the bill on Wednesday, "this will completely eliminate public participation, as well as eliminating informing the public about environmentally significant activities specifically with regard to Ontario Place. In plain language, the government is using an economic competitiveness bill to shield a private megaspa."

"We stand behind responsible growth, but economic resilience is not achieved by burying waterfront deals in a mining bill," the group continued in a press release "Ontario's prosperity must be built on transparency, public trust and meaningful consultation — principles this clause ignores."