Ontario Place spa deal won't cost taxpayers a thing, Ford says, won't address other site costs

Premier Doug Ford made clear Tuesday the private spa set to be constructed as part of the Ontario Place redevelopment won’t cost taxpayers a thing, but was more opaque about other costs associated with the overall project.

“There's no public money in this deal...it's not going to cost the taxpayers any money outside of us owning an asset which is a parking lot and clearing the land,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference in Etobicoke, Ont. 

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“With the other proponents on another part, eventually we'll get to. I can't disclose that right at this point, without getting confirmation and the exact numbers.”

Ford wouldn’t get into what those “other proponents” of the project included, and stopped short of putting a price tag on the planned five-storey underground parking garage – which the premier said the province will own and generate income from – and land clearing for construction.

Despite that, he said he would “always be transparent” on the details of the waterfront space overhaul, which NDP Leader Marit Stiles has said will cost taxpayers an estimated $650 million.

On Monday, it was reported that the province had signed a 95-year lease with Therme Canada to operate the wellbeing space, which government officials did not confirm but Ford said was “pretty typical” in a an investment of this size.

The government has said the Austrian developer will put up $500 million towards the construction of the 22,000 square-metre spa and Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma added Monday that Therme will continue to invest in the surrounding public land, of which there will be 48,000 square metres.

FORD EYES ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE SITE FOR NEW SCHOOL, COMMUNITY CENTRE

A week after announcing the Ontario Science Centre would be moving to complement the Ontario Place redesign, Ford seems keen on working with the city to build a new school or a community centre at the site.

“There’s two options here: We work with the city and make something spectacular about the existing Science Centre and help out the community that's desperately in need of help up there,” Ford said.

The premier had previously said he wanted to build housing at the site, which he said the area was in “desperate need of” at the time.

Since then, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto confirmed to CTV News Toronto that while the old Science Centre can be torn down, it must be replaced with a structure that serves the “purposes of operating as a science centre.”

Moreover, the lease at the Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue site stands until 2064 and the Ontario government would need to renegotiate the terms before any shovels go into the ground to build anything other than a science museum, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) told CTV News Toronto in an email.

Prior to last week’s announcement, the TRCA, which co-owns the space with the City, said Tuesday it had no discussions with the province about a possible science centre relocation.