SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Marit Stiles

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Davenport
  • New Democratic Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • 1199 Bloor St. W Toronto, ON M6H 1N4 MStiles-CO@ndp.on.ca
  • tel: 416-535-3158
  • fax: 416-535-6587
  • MStiles-QP@ndp.on.ca

  • Government Page
  • Mar/20/24 10:50:00 a.m.

J’aimerais reconnaître qu’aujourd’hui nous célébrons la Journée internationale de la Francophonie. Alors, bonne journée de la Francophonie, tout le monde.

My question is for the Premier. The NDP has unearthed new documents revealing plans for a phase 2 of the Ontario Place redevelopment that, for some reason, this government kept secret from Ontarians. We know what phase 1 is. That’s the backroom deal where government, we know, is spending hundreds of millions of public dollars and handing over public land to a private luxury spa company for 95 years. But what is phase 2 and why has the government kept it a secret from Ontario?

My question is, when was the Premier going to tell the public his secret plan to pave over Lake Ontario?

The whole Ontario Place redevelopment scheme has been cloaked in secrecy from the beginning. The Premier won’t tell the public the terms of the 95-year lease that they have with Therme. Time and again, the only reason why we know anything about this government’s real intentions is because of our own investigative work.

I would like to know, on behalf of Ontarians: What else is the Premier keeping secret from the people of Ontario?

I’m going back to the Premier. Late last year, the government jammed through a bill that would exempt all undertakings at Ontario Place from the Environmental Bill of Rights and from the Environmental Assessment Act. Did the Premier change the laws to try and get away with his secret plan to pave over Lake Ontario?

The Premier—I will remind you, Speaker—jammed through a bill that would allow the government to ignore the provincial laws when it comes to Ontario Place. I remind the members here that the bill even lets the government commit acts of misrepresentation, misfeasance, breach of trust and bad faith without any consequences, and this is the same government under RCMP criminal investigation for another scandal.

I wonder why they passed that bill. Did the Premier jam through this wildly irresponsible bill because he knew that his secret plans for Ontario Place would not survive public scrutiny or judicial review?

Interjections.

363 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border