Under cover of darkness, Infrastructure Ontario began the removal of 865 trees at Ontario Place on the evening of Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Within a single day, workers had cut down the vast majority of those trees.
The work?which includes the removal of every single tree on the western portion of the waterfront site adjacent downtown Toronto?is part of the approximately $200-million in site preparations that taxpayers are funding to prepare the land for Therme, an Austrian spa company, to develop a stadium-sized indoor waterpark on the site.
The next day, October 3, the Province released the details of its 95-year lease with Therme, which journalists and grassroots organizations have been seeking for years to obtain through Freedom of Information requests. Removal of trees in progress at Ontario Place on October 3, 2024, around 5 pm. Photo by Jason Ash
The timing, critics say, aimed to distract from the tree removal in progress. It also likely anticipates the expected release later this year of an Auditor General’s report about the lease, which would make public many details about the arrangement between the Province and Therme. (Agencies like Infrastructure Ontario are given early access to Auditor General’s reports in order to provide official responses.)
Hours after the razing of the site began, Ontario Place Protectors filed an emergency injunction asking for the tree removal to stop, pending the hearing of the appeal of its case that questions the Provin...