TORONTO – The Auditor General (AG) is “slamming” the Ontario government for failing to follow proper process in the redevelopment of Ontario Place, with a bombshell report filed today at Queen’s Park.
First, the report – illustrated by AG Shelley Spence – says the cost estimate for the redevelopment of Ontario Place has increased to $2.2 billion (up $1.8 million) since the development application was issued in 2019, five times the 2019 projection of $424 million. That increased estimate includes $700 million for the construction of a new Ontario Science Centre, $280 million for a parking structure, a $346.9 million increase in site maintenance costs, and $500 million in public realm improvements. Not only that: the report notes that some of those costs could be even higher, and the estimate doesn’t even include the costs of maintaining the site. That said, the AG Shelley Spence (in the pic below, from www.auditor.on.ca) reiterated that moving the science center is now more expensive than maintaining it at its current location.
The report also found a number of issues with the site decision-making process. The AG found that Ontario’s Ministry of Infrastructure did not follow best practices for modern, large-scale land use development projects in designing and conducting the CFD application process. Additionally, decisions in the CFD process were “not fair, transparent or accountable” to all participants as required by guidelines and best practices, the auditor found. For example, despite published guidelines that contact with government officials was prohibited during the open period, some participants were invited to meet with government officials and high-ranking political staff during the CFD open period, the auditor found. Specifically, three participants attended meetings with staff from the Minister’s office and Premier Doug Ford’s office in June and July 2019.
Only later in the period were all participants offered a meeting with the Premier’s office and the Minister’s office. And then, according to the report, a vice-president of Infrastructure Ontario, responsible for conducting financial assessments, communicated directly with Therme Canada (Therme) and other participants during the CFD’s open period. In short, the decision-making process was not entirely transparent and fair.
Overall, the entire process was “irregular, subjective” and did not always follow the rules, according to the Auditor General who issued nineteen recommendations to bring the entire procedure back into a framework of good practices (to read the recommendations and the whole report – that is part of the Annual Report 2024 – click here: pa_OntarioPlace_en24).