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Making your voice heard about Ontario Place

6 things to do in October

  • Vote, if you can, in the Toronto Municipal Election on October 24th 
  • Register for the Provincial consultation event on October 27th  **Alert: keep trying to register – today the website says registration is closed.**
  • Complete the Provincial online consultation opening on October 25th
  • Send the new Ontario Place for All letter to Premier Ford, Ministers Lumsden and Surma and Mayor Tory
  • Amplify critical voices from the community and media through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok 
  • Donate to Ontario Place for All and help fund the fight

Election Day is Monday

Don’t forget to vote on Monday October 24th.  Consider supporting candidates that have pledged to keep Ontario Place a place for everyone. 

October 27th - Ontario Place Virtual Consultation Event

One year later – Another frustrating round of public realm consultation? Still important to participate and let the Province know you are watching.

On October 27th 5:pm-7:00 pm, Ontario will be hosting a virtual consultation event on:

  • the proposed public realm design options for Ontario Place, and
  • the Public Work Class Environment Assessment (Class EA) for Ontario Place is currently underway

Register here! **Alert: keep trying to register – today the website says registration is closed.**

We are very concerned about how much open access the public will have to Ontario Place and who will be responsible for designing, maintaining and controlling it.  

The Province has hired an excellent team (including the designer of Trillium Park) to develop a Public Realm Master Plan for Ontario Place.  Unfortunately, it seems that the Therme’s occupation puts the whole of the West Island off-limits for that team.  This is unacceptable. 

The Public Realm Master Plan was expected to unify the publicly accessible open space – that is what is normally meant by the public realm.  Instead, a preliminary presentation to the  Waterfront Design Review Panel in July 2022, raised concerns that a) public space on the West Island is not included in the Master Plan (because it falls within the Therme lease?) and 2) the lion’s share of what is left to the Master Planning team is taken up by the massive parking lots and paved event space.

Not much left to the talented landscape designers and not much left of Ontario Place for the Public to enjoy.  See the image at the end of this bulletin for an illustration of the problem. 

Online Consultation

An online consultation on the public realm design and Class EA will be open on the Province’s https://engageontarioplace.ca website as of October 25th.  

Ontario Place for All reviewed and provided some suggestions for working around closed-ended questions for the online consultation one year ago.  We will be doing the same with this new survey so stay tuned.

OP4A has a new letter for you to send from our website

Click here to send a letter from our website to Premier Ford, Neil Lumsden – the new Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Kinga Surma – Minister of Infrastructure, and Mayor Tory.  

This letter urges the Province to rethink its plans for Ontario Place in light of the devastating impact of Therme on the Cultural Heritage of Ontario, including its natural environment and its legacy of democratizing access to the waterfront.

Amplify, Amplify, Amplify

Keep up the great work of amplifying your voice and the voices of journalists, urbanists, heritage experts and all those who care about the future of Ontario Place – share on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and your personal networks.  

The rumble of discontent is getting louder.  We need to make it roar!!!

Donate to Ontario Place For All

No matter how small, your donations help our work.  We are all volunteers, but we still need financial resources to fight on your behalf. Donations are handled by Park People, one of our partner organizations.  

Donate here!

Recent media pieces of interest

More detail on the Public Realm Master Plan vs the publicly accessible space

This is an image From the joint Infrastructure Ontario, City and Public Realm Team presentation to the Waterfront Design Review Panel in July:

  • The orange lines represent the areas that the tenants, Therme and Live Nation will occupy as gated areas.
  • The purple lines around the West Island indicate areas that are or are proposed to be leased to Therme but must be “publicly accessible”.  The Province has not defined public accessibility to this area.  The Design Review Panel has raised concerns about the inadequate size of the publicly accessible zone. 
  • The green area is what has been given to the Public Realm Master Planning team.  Not much to work with: 

The Globe and Mail, OCT. 2022

Ontario Place is a park.  Keep it that way.

Continue reading

Spacing Magazine, SEPT. 2022

What we lose when we lose Ontario Place.

Continue reading

Spacing Magazine, SEPT. 2022

Clear-cutting Michael Hough’s landscaping at Ontario Place

Continue reading

Ontario Place for All Summer Update

Ontario Place for All Summer Update

  • Walk and talk Ontario Place – Sunday, September 11th
  • Provincial plans squeeze out the public
  • Therme erases Ontario Place’s iconic design
  • Should the future of Ontario Place be a municipal campaign issue?

Mark your calendar!!! Sunday, September 11th, walk and talk with:

Journalist/Urbanists John Lorinc and Shawn Micallef will be leading a walking discussion at Ontario Place on Sunday, Sept 11th at 10 am.

They have both called for the future of Ontario Place to become an issue in this fall’s municipal election campaign issue.  What do you think?  Come, join the discussion and pick up an Ontario Place for All pin.  Meet at the East Entrance to Trillium Park, light rain or shine.

This just in: Écorécréo backing out of Ontario Place proposal

The Globe & Mail reports that Écorécréo, the Québec-based adventure tourism company, is pulling out of its tentative deal at Ontario Place. No plans have been announced by the province in response to the departure, but it opens the opportunity for supporters to press for more public open space and parkland to be provided at Ontario Place.

Major concerns as the OP Public Realm Plan debuts at the Waterfront Design Review Panel

The Province has released its draft plan for the public areas under redevelopment at Ontario Place. And our biggest fear has come true: after taking away the parts that are being given to Therme, Live Nation and Écorécréo, there is very little left for the public.  

Look closely: in the draft presentation, only the areas outside of the red line will be open to the public.  Aside from Trillium Park, most of what is left are parking lots and the paved event space – little of which is slated to change. (WDRP presentation and meeting video – OP starts at 1:56). 

Shawn Micallef, Toronto Star contributing columnist calls design of the Therme development, “a generational Mistake.”

Therme’s spa is poised to destroy core cultural heritage attributes of Ontario Place. 

Recently released designs show the spa will obliterate the visual and functional relationship between the iconic Cinesphere/Pods at Ontario Place and its natural environment. This technology/nature relationship is at the heart of the recognized cultural heritage of Ontario Place.

The West Island’s carefully designed topography will be destroyed; hundreds of mature trees are going to be cut down. 

Ontario Place’s foundational theme of equity and inclusion has been done away with. Those who cannot pay spa fees will be confined to the outside edge of the island. Therme will even control the west entrance and plans to replace the Ontario Place branding with its own. Ontario Place will be open for business, but not for most people. 

Therme’s rendering of the West Entrance and spa facility – WDRP presentation July 27, 2022

Torontonians need to make the future of Ontario Place a municipal election issue!

Our municipal politicians need to be tougher and come up with more creative ways to ensure that Ontario Place remains a lakeside attraction for everyone. 

Toronto residents have expressed their anger about the plans for Ontario Place, but the provincial government has refused to listen. It is now time to challenge the candidates for Mayor and Council during the current municipal campaign to find a better solution – one that the Province can accept. 

One suggestion has been to move the Therme development to a more suitable location in Toronto, such as nearby Exhibition Place.  Let’s push for those wanting our vote to do just that. 

Ontario Place was conceived as a public park and attraction that would reclaim and democratize access to the waterfront and celebrate Ontario’s identity, culture and economic vitality.  

The Province’s plans completely undermine that legacy.  We should be telling our municipal candidates for Mayor and Council that Ontario Place must remain a resource for everyone.  

What the Media and commentators have to say:

The Globe and Mail, SEPT. 2022

Ontario Place redevelopment faces new hurdles after private partner exits

Continue reading

Toronto Star, AUG. 2022

Ontario Place needs fresh ideas. But the latest plans carry a whiff of desperation

Continue reading

Toronto Star, AUG. 2022

Proposed Ontario Place spa better suited on CNE grounds

Continue reading

Le Devoir, NOV. 2021

Quebec interests at the heart of the debate on the future of Ontario’s Place (article in French)

Continue reading

Call to Action for Ontario Place

Put Ontario Back in Ontario Place

The Government says it has a new vision for Ontario Place, but what is it?  Giving pieces of Ontario Place to three businesses who will charge people for pay-to-play entertainment does not amount to a vision!

If you share our concern about this, here are some things you can do:

  1. Register here for a Public Information Session on October 27th at 6:30 pm
  2. Click here to fill out the province’s survey. The survey closes October 28th – but note the comments below about this survey
  3. Forward this email to your network all over Ontario.

A Big Caution about the Survey

The Government’s survey is full of leading questions designed to limit your ability to respond frankly and sincerely. The government has not yet committed to making the results of the questionnaire public. 

The questions are written in a way to force respondents to accept the government’s development decisions. It is mandatory to answer all questions. Only three questions have a box where you can provide your own comments.  We suggest you use those boxes to enter your concerns.  Here are some suggestions: 

Question 2 talks about Ontario’s vision and plan for Ontario Place. 

  • In the comment box you can point out that this is not Ontario’s vision.  It’s a “plan” created for commercial interests without public consultation.

Question 3 says open spaces with free public access will be key to the site. Of course, it does not tell you that most of the site will be privatized.

  • You can use the comment box to say that all of Ontario Place should be accessible and affordable for everyone. That was the original vision. More than ever, we need that vision today. 

Question 4b asks which heritage features are important for you. You cannot say they all are.

  • Again, use the comment box to say something like “Ranking heritage features is like asking us to pick which finger we are willing to lose. They are all important and work together.”

Take a few minutes to fill out the survey and register for the Public Information Session.

Your voice counts!

contact Ontario place for all

Let's talk public space!
info@ontarioplaceforall.com

Mailing Address:
Ontario Place for All
401 Richmond St W Studio 119
Toronto, ON
M5V 3A8

 

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