Ontario Place spa developer to shrink size of building but concerns remain about province's transparency

The Austria-based company redeveloping Ontario Place's West Island with an indoor waterpark and spa has unveiled a new design featuring a smaller main building and more public park space. 

The redesign comes after politicians and community members voiced opposition to the initial proposal for its $350-million "year-round, family-friendly" waterfront attraction, the centrepiece of which a 65,000-square-metre, seven-storey indoor private "wellness centre" and waterpark.

At a virtual news conference Tuesday, Therme Canada representatives detailed various changes the company made to the proposed design.

"The design that we revealed today delivers the same great waterpark and wellbeing attractions, but thanks to feedback, it has even more open parkland, more natural spaces, more public trails, and more places for people to gather," Therme Group CEO Robert Hanea said in a news release.

Representatives from Therme Canada said the company is set to spend another $100 million on the new public space and that the company will be submitting an updated design to the city.

City of Toronto planning staff said earlier this year that initial plans for an entrance building on the mainland (near the waterfront trail) that would connect visitors to the West Island was so big that it "overwhelms the public realm." Residents also raised "serious concerns" about the project, including over the potential loss of public and green spaces, during public consultations held earlier this year.

Hanea said the new design includes more public space than currently exists on the West Island.

Building size reduced by a quarter

According to Therme, the following changes have been made to the design:

• The size of the Therme building has been reduced by 25 per cent. Instead of a single large building, it's now composed of a campus of connected buildings.
• Some 1.6 hectares of rooftop parkland and trails have been added on top of the buildings. This is in addition to the 4.8 hectares of public parkland, including a new beach, boardwalk and cycling trails included in the previous design.
• The bridge connecting the mainland to the West Island over Lakeshore Boulevard West and through a redesigned entry pavilion will include greenspace and will be accessible to the public.
• The East Headland will now have a larger public gathering space and "better protection from the elements."
• Public pathways have been widened and more space for food concessions added.

The company said input from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation has informed many of the new features, including the bridge and rooftop pathways that will "recreate the path of the Credit River." A new plaza, meanwhile, will host future programming.

Province praises redesign, but critics remain opposed

The provincial government has said its broader plan for Ontario Place also includes a new Live Nation concert venue, a relocated Ontario Science Centre, as well as public space and beaches. The province plans to spend around $650 million to upgrade existing infrastructure and preserve heritage elements of the site, such as the Cinesphere and pods.

The initial redevelopment plan submitted to the city called for a five-level underground parking lot for more than 2,000 cars plus a surface parking lot with space for 600 cars. According to the initial plan, the province would be on the hook for the $400 million it would cost to build the parking garage.

A spokesperson for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma praised Therme's updated design in an email statement. 

"Therme has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to working with the province, city and public as we bring Ontario Place back to life," Andrea Chiappetta wrote. 

Chiappetta said the underground parking facility will be integrated with the science centre, which is expected to bring in one million visitors per year and will serve future users of the entire site.

"Ontarians from Thunder Bay to Ottawa to Windsor need and deserve access to this world-class destination — not just those who can get there by public transit," Chiappetta said. 

But the Opposition New Democrats say the "splashy new designs" do nothing to address their concerns around transparency.

"(Premier Doug) Ford's Conservatives ... continue to hide the details of this 95-year lease to give away some of the most valuable public parkland to a private corporation," Spadina-Fort York MPP Chris Glover wrote in a statement.

Glover is also critical of the province's plan to foot the bill for the parking lot, as well as a recent environmental assessment for the Ontario Place redevelopment excluding Therme's site.

Province plans to cut down more than 800 trees

That land and the revamped concert venue run by LiveNation were not part of the environmental assessment because they are exempt as private companies under a law changed by the Ford government a few years ago.

Environmental impacts on the redevelopment of Ontario Place are not expected to be significant, the report said, but there are "contaminants of concern" that will have to be remediated. As well, there are a number of animals considered threatened that automatically have habitat protection under the Ontario Endangered Species Act.

The province plans to cut down more than 800 trees in the area, although none are protected under current legislation because most native species are not naturally occurring there — they were all planted when the islands were created decades ago.

Norm Di Pasquale, co-chair of the advocacy group Ontario Place for All, said the design changes don't fix the "fundamental flaws" with the project.

"We're still talking about erasing every single tree at West Island and everything that's there right now," Di Pasquale said in an interview.

"We're still looking at $650 million in taxpayer money and a 95-year lease of which we cannot see any of the details."

Coun. Ausma Malik (Spadina—Fort York), whose ward includes Ontario Place, said Therma's design update doesn't address the main concerns raised by city staff and the public.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds spent by the province to subsidize site preparations for a private spa and water park, and accompanying parking structure for thousands of cars, could be put to much better use," Malik said in a statement.

Members of the public will have a chance to express their opinions on the new design next month during another round of consultation.