Toronto residents are expressing their concerns over the Diamond Schmitt-designed plan for a massive new aquatic theme park at Ontario Place they say is “tone-deaf” and exclusionary of their basic needs.

Spurred on by the recent release of updated renderings and other details of Therme Group's second North American project, opponents say the city's Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel needs to consider a full-tilt reassessment of the scheme on the basis of accessibility, environmental impact, and a distressing lack of free public amenities.

“This seems like another plan to take away space, livable space that we are already so short on demand of down here,” a concerned area resident recently told the CBC.

The new development is scheduled to stand on the site of a 155-acre public park and entertainment venue from renowned local architects Michael Hough and Eberhard Zeigler that has sat mostly abandoned since closing in 2012. Though it has included six total public consultations and lacks the casinos and luxury condominiums many had feared at the initial announcement, the project is still considered by some to be a nuisance that plays into the coffers of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s developer friends more than it benefits the 15 million Ontario residents. 

“What the province is coming up with now is something that is completely isolated, all exclusionary, only for wealthy people, not for the everyday Torontonians,” urbanist mayoral candidate Gil Penalosa lamented. “The waterfront does not add or subtract anything from the proposal of the province.”

The paltry amount of public space that will be left at Ontario Place is shocking and completely unacceptable. Only the areas outside of the red line are free. The pay-to-play concept here will exclude most Torontonians. Isn't Ontario Place supposed to be a place for everyone? https://t.co/2Qo5XqjHM8
— Cindy Wilkey (@CindyWilkey) August 4, 2022

The city council will debate next fall to give the final go-ahead to the project, which is expected to begin its east-west directional construction by 2024 at the latest. It will be interesting to see if the current plan goes the way of another recent waterfront scheme, the panned and then repackaged Quayside Development, or, as a recent op-ed in Azure penned by four University of Toronto faculty members posits, “future public consultations will only serve to legitimize the winning proposal.”

“The recent proposal for Ontario Place lacks vision and resilience,” the co-authors wrote finally in protest. “It is a house of cards, likely to collapse at the first economic downturn, pandemic, or change in leisure habits, leaving Ontarians with a huge bill and an abandoned, giant 'greenhouse' on Toronto’s waterfront, looming amid the remains of Zeidler’s and Houghs’ long-gone chef d’oeuvre.”