People still hate controversial Ontario Place spa after new redesign drops

With Ontario Place bulldozed to the point of being completely unrecognizable and Therme Group in the midst of finalizing designs for the megaspa coming to the property, it seems that we're all going to have to accept that the redevelopment of the park as planned is inevitable at this point, whether we like it or not.

Therme has had to make multiple substantial revisions to its proposal in the last few years in response to public backlash, attempting to sway locals' negative feelings about the sprawling private campus that will take over much of the disused waterfront theme park-turned-green space.

In the most recent blueprints, which were released on Tuesday and appear to be AI-generated, the facility's still-extremely imposing footprint has been shrunk down, sitting at 33,000 metres (from 65,000 in earlier iterations).

A total of ten pools with 20 water slides, nine steam rooms, 14 saunas, and other amenities, including cafes and restaurants, will be housed on the once-heavily treed West Island.

The site will also have approximately 6.5 hectares of public space in the form of grassy areas, trails, a beach with swimming zones and structures for community event programming.

Through its 95-year lease agreement with the Province, Therme is contractually obligated to provide these accessible spaces in addition to its spa, admission for which it says will start at around $40 per person.

Also part of the contract are a whopping 1,600 parking spaces that the Province must, in turn, provide to Therme. This number has been beefed up to 3,500-spots in a five-level above-ground parkade, renderings for which were released in late June, to, as expected, more outcry.

Since news of the garage was first leaked in 2023, the hulking structure has proven almost more contentious than the entire concept of the Therme project itself, which is saying a lot.

It will alone cost taxpayers a staggering $800 million, along with also encouraging customers to drive to the new attraction (along with the needlessly-relocated Ontario Science Centre and revamped Budweiser Stage), serving to generate even more congestion on already gridlocked surrounding roads.

Confusingly, the renderings show the lot positioned south of Lake Shore Boulevard and blocking views of the shoreline from the north, though internal documents from March state that Doug Ford agreed "to change its current planned location for parking at the Ontario Place site and work with the City to establish an alternative parking solution at Exhibition Place."

Despite the array of impressive new visuals that have dropped in the last two weeks alongside promises of what the spa will offer, no amount of re-jigging seems to be enough to assuage community opposition to the wellness complex, which is expected to open in 2034.

The drama surrounding Therme and the Ontario Place redevelopment has been enough to garner coverage from the New York Times on multiple occasions, including this spring, when the esteemed outlet revealed that the spa company had grossly misrepresented itself to secure the bid for the valuable land, all in a process that was highly "unusual."

Indeed, one would agree that the skirting of due environmental studies and exemption from public consultation, as sanctioned by the Provincial government, is not par the course for such a huge build on such environmentally-sensitive land.

Online reactions to this latest spate of mock-ups include comments like "what a horrible waste of money," "NOBODY wants this, stop," and "everyone involved in this should go to jail," to give a snapshot of resident sentiment.