www.canadianarchitect.com
This article is part of a four-part series examining findings from the Auditor Generals Report, released on December 3, 2024. Future parts will be posting in the coming week.On Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Ontarios Auditor General released its 2024 report, including a 117-page long analysis of the Ontario Place Redevelopment, on Torontos waterfront. The projectwhich includes a stadium-sized waterpark and spa by Austrian developer Therme, and expanded concert venue by LiveNationhas elicited public concern related to its privatization of public space, environmental impacts, and procurement process. The planned redevelopment is also linked to the closure of the Ontario Science Centre, which the government plans to replace with a half-sized facility at Ontario Place.The Auditor Generals office noted that the public cost of the Ontario Place redevelopment has ballooned from when the call was launchedlargely because key costs were not included in assessing the submissions. While initially, the government anticipated spending $335 million to $424 million preparing the site, the total tally for the project currently amounts to over $2.237 billion in taxpayer dollars.Where did the extra $1.8 billion in costs come from? This bill includes the much-discussed parking garage. In the governments lease with Therme, the Province has agreed to construct a 1,800-spot parking garage, with 1,600 spots reserved for Thermes use. Its lease with LiveNation includes 1,200 parking spots. While the initial plans anticipated a 5-storey below-grade parking garage under the new Ontario Science Centre pavilion, the cost for this structure was estimated by Infrastructure Ontario to come in at over $1.3 billion dollars. The two currently preferred options are priced, respectively, at over $280 million and over $400 million.The cost of a new Ontario Science Centre has gone up nearly $400 million. This results largely from additional scope changes. Those big-ticket items were, in my assessment, known but deliberately omitted from the initial business case. They include building a tunnel-and-bridge connection to the Pods, the construction of a basement level with loading dock, and the need for excavation and structural foundation work. The new cost estimates suggest that even in the Provinces faulty business case, the scales would now be tipped in favour of the cost-effectiveness of retaining and repairing the existing Science Centre, rather than replacing it with a new one.More costs arise from an increase to the costs of demolition on the West Island, and increase in costs for restoring the Pods and Cinesphere. The Auditor General notes that the original contract for repairs to the heritage structures was awarded via an RFP, but that when the work was delayed, the work was transferred to another contractorwithout an open procurement, and at a cost of $64 million, in addition to the $32.9 million already paid to the first contractor. That same second contractor was also sole-sourced for the contract for the West Island demolition, at a cost of $40.4 million (up from an initial estimate of $5-10 million).The Province will also be on the hook for higher costs of site servicing and site preparation, including contributing over $20 million to the Therme shoreline and public realm, and over $60 million to relocate a two combined sewer outflows, one of which impacts Thermes planned beach, and the other of which is expected to conflict with proposed underground construction.According to the Auditor General, the government has spent $8.5 million on legal fees, related in part to the controversy elicited by advancing redevelopment plans that are not based on meaningful public consultation.The biggest part of the added expenses is an increase to the costs of public realm developmentover $500 million for parks, paths, roads, facilities, and landscape, at Ontario Place, up from an estimate of $50 million in 2021. This is, says the Auditor General, directly linked to the governments decision to act as master developer for the site. But this was not pre-determined: in the Auditor Generals analysis, seven of the 10 comprehensive site-wide submissions from the Call for Development included a design for the public realm, three of which included a provision to pay for the public realm. Her offices report also notes that Seven included a parking solution, three of which included a provision to pay for parking.In deciding to select participants responsible for developing parts of the site (Therme, Live Nation, and corcreo), rather than the full realm, the Province was also deciding to bear these extra costs. However, no estimates of the cost of this work were prepared or presented to key decision makers. There will be additional costs to maintain and operate these spaces.This $2.237 billion in investments would, in theory, be offset by revenues from Therme. However, as the Auditor General has pointed out, the $1.1 billion in rent payments that the Province has cited is in nominal dollars, over a 95-year period. The present valuethat is the concept of todays dollars being worth more than tomorrows dollars because of inflationmeans that these rent payments, today, are only worth about $163 million.Zooming out, it is worth taking a moment to consider the implicit promise of privatizing large sections of Ontario Place. Such a move was objectionable to many critics, but the government held fast to the idea that it would result in substantial savings to taxpayersmaybe even, some might have expected, a free ride, or close to it. As it turns out, a privatized Ontario Place is not free: in addition to giving away this waterfront land, the Ontario Place Redevelopment puts Ontario taxpayers on the hook for over $2 billion.The post The Auditor Generals Report, Part 1: The cost of privatizing Ontario Place appeared first on Canadian Architect.
