Former city councillor and ex-MP Adam Vaughan, long one of the sharpest critics of Doug Ford’s plans for Toronto’s waterfront, is now working for Therme Canada, the company developing a luxury spa at Ontario Place.
In an interview with CBC News, Vaughan revealed that he has been hired as a senior adviser to Therme, the Austrian company granted a 95-year lease to build a destination spa and indoor water park on the west island of Ontario Place, the provincially-owned site on the city’s lakeshore.
Vaughan describes his job with Therme as “speaking to the public about what an incredible project this is” and heaped praise on Ontario’s premier for the overall vision.
“I’d be the first person to criticize Doug Ford if I thought he was doing a bad thing in Toronto,” Vaughan told CBC News.
“This is a good project and I’m totally wholeheartedly in support of it. When new facts, new ideas, and more importantly, great ideas appear on the waterfront, I’ll be the first to champion them every single time.”
As recently as 2019, when he was still the Liberal MP for Trinity-Spadina, Vaughan made a statement in the House of Commons criticizing the plans Ford was floating for Ontario Place, and said the provincial government had “put a for sale sign on the site.”
Vaughan went on to say that Ford’s Progressive Conservatives were “talking about a mall or worse — a casino on the waterfront.”
“What a waste. What a terrible deficit of imagination. The people of Ontario, the folks of our city, the Toronto Liberal caucus want to keep Ontario Place a public place.”
When CBC News showed Vaughan that statement during his interview, he responded: “They abandoned the idea of a casino. They’re not building a mall. What they’re building is a park.”
“It’s a blend of paid attractions, ours being one of them, but it’s also an amazing set of new green spaces with restored habitat, and beaches that you don’t need hiking boots to get to,” he said.
Last December, Ontario’s auditor general criticized the provincial government’s handling of the Ontario Place redevelopment, a project that has ballooned to cost the public purse $2.2 billion. The auditor called the process for selecting new tenants at the property neither transparent nor fair.
The auditor’s report found that Therme Group, the international parent company of Therme Canada, did not own and operate five of the six spas cited in its bid submission to Infrastructure Ontario.
Those findings got renewed attention in April as a result of a New York Times story that questioned whether Therme exaggerated its credentials in its pitch, including whether the company had the $100 million in equity the province required as a minimum qualification.
WATCH | How a New York Times story on Therme’s Ontario Place spa went down at Queen’s Park:
Critics react to allegations that Therme misrepresented itself to get Ontario Place deal
“The reason the bid won was because we met the criteria,” said Vaughan.
“We have three major investors that are part of our consortium,” he said. “That’s part of our financial structure. That’s what was presented to the government.”
The auditor also criticized the province for failing to hold any public consultations on the overall vision for Ontario Place until after its anchor tenants were selected.
But in his interview with CBC News, Vaughan said there have been “a tonne of public consultations.”
“We’re listening and the province is listening.”
He said the consultations called for such things as an accessible path to the waterfront, public beaches people can swim at and the rehabilitation of contaminated soil on the site.
“All of those good things are happening and they’re happening for the public and they’re going to be free,” Vaughan said.
Therme is investing $500 million to build its facility and another $200 million in the 6.5 hectares of public space around the spa, according to the business case made public by the province.
While the business case claimed Therme would pay nearly $2 billion in lease and maintenance payments over the 95-year term, the auditor pointed out that figure doesn’t account for inflation, and estimated the net proceeds to the province at $153 million in today’s dollars.
“When you look at the park, when you look at the new beach, when you look at the change, on balance, I think it’s an idea that we have to get behind in Toronto,” said Vaughan.
As for supporting a project so staunchly backed by Ford, one of his fiercest political opponents, Vaughan said he’s “never been afraid to disagree with him.”
“But when he’s right, he’s right.”
