Company
An Austrian-based wellness and spa developer/operator that was selected to build a large private spa and waterpark at Ontario Place in Toronto under a 95-year lease with the Ontario government.
thermegroup.comThe same 95-year Ontario Place lease with Therme Group underpins this scandal: Ford government legislation (the New Deal for Toronto Act / Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, 2023) exempted the Ontario Place redevelopment from the Planning Act, Environmental Assessment Act and Heritage Act, and shifted authority over the waterfront land to Queen's Park, clearing the way for Therme's development to proceed.
$2.2B total megaspa project cited by critics
The province is rerouting a combined sewer overflow (CSO) pipe at Ontario Place so it no longer discharges at the site of a planned public beach adjacent to Therme's leased spa development; critics, including an MPP, argue the reroute was undertaken to accommodate Therme's development plans at taxpayer expense.
$1.1B+ in rent/revenue over 95 years
Therme Group (via Therme Canada) was selected by the Ford government to develop and operate a private spa/waterpark at Ontario Place under a 95-year lease. Ontario's Auditor General found the selection process was not fair, transparent or accountable, and that Infrastructure Ontario failed to verify Therme's claims of operating six spas in Europe -- a New York Times investigation found it actually operated only one, in Bucharest.