June 8th, 2023

NDP: Government’s Ontario Place procurement process appears to give Therme unfair advantage

QUEEN’S PARK – Ontario NDP Infrastructure critic Jennifer French (Oshawa) highlighted revelations from the Ministry of Infrastructure Estimates that raise questions about whether Therme was given an unfair advantage in the procurement process for Ontario Place’s redevelopment.

"Six days before the deadline for bid submissions for Ontario Place’s redevelopment, the deadline was suddenly extended, despite Infrastructure Ontario already receiving several bids,” said French during Thursday’s question period. “One bid that hadn’t been received at that point was the bid from Therme, which eventually won the redevelopment rights.

Did that deadline extension give Therme an unfair advantage?”

Further, based on information French learned at committee and reports from media, the multi-million-dollar parking facility that the government has pledged to cover the cost of for Therme was added at the request of bidders.

The 2019 Call for Development for the Ontario Place redevelopment stated that bidders “should consider adequacy of parking” in their proposed plans and that the government “will not be making any financial contributions towards the design or construction of any proposed facilities.”

“Why did the government tell bidders not to expect funding for parking when Therme, the winning bidder, is getting a new, publicly-funded, five-level subterranean parking facility with more than 2,000 spots, the cost of which has been estimated at $450 million?” French asked.