Markings for construction crews are seen at Ontario Place in November, 2023.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario’s legislative watchdog has declined to act on a complaint by the province’s NDP Leader to investigate Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma for allegedly favouring the Austrian spa company awarded a 95-year lease on Toronto’s waterfront.
Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake issued a decision on Thursday, saying he had been provided with insufficient grounds to launch a probe of whether Ms. Surma had violated the Members’ Integrity Act, which governs MPP ethics and conflicts of interest.
In his report, Mr. Wake said he would not proceed because Ms. Surma was not the minister responsible for awarding the site, at the province’s Ontario Place, to Vienna-based Therme Group. She only took over the file from Lisa MacLeod, then the heritage minister, in August, 2022, after the award in May of that year.
Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Marit Stiles had submitted 1,000 pages of documentation with her complaint, demanding an investigation into the government’s move to offer to build a parking garage for Therme – a benefit denied to other bidders for the project.
Ontario Place redevelopment cost rises by $1.8-billion as Auditor-General questions bid process
Asked about the commissioner’s decision on Thursday, Ms. Stiles said the watchdog’s powers were “very narrow” and that the rules he enforces should be made stricter. She said the Ontario Place plans involve $2-billion in government subsidies, pointing to what she called a “pretty damning” Auditor-General’s report last year that concluded the process that chose Therme was unfair and lacked transparency.
“While this particular issue that we put forward to the Integrity Commissioner, he’s not going to dig into anything further at this moment, I just want to say that doesn’t change the reality of this shady deal,” Ms. Stiles told reporters in Timmins. “Ontarians know there’s something not right about this.”
In an e-mailed statement, Ms. Surma thanked the Integrity Commissioner for “taking the time to carefully review these important projects.”