The public accounts were published last week, and we got to see a detailed overview of the government’s revenue and expenses for the year. Public agencies are supposed to publish their financial statements at the same time, but, strangely, Ontario Place did not. In fact, Ontario Place has not published a single annual report since the Conservatives took office five years ago.

Speaker, to the Premier—can the Premier explain why his government is hiding the financial statements of Ontario Place?

The government doesn’t want to admit they’re hiding these, but journalists had to file freedom-of-information requests to get the 2022 financials. This government wants Ontarians to believe that Ontario Place is derelict and abandoned. The Minister of Infrastructure even told this House before that it is “not enjoyed” by Torontonians or Ontarians. But these newly released documents reveal that Ontario Place actually attracted 2.9 million visitors last year alone, just in one year, and they made a record profit. That 2.9 million visitors is almost as many visitors as the Statue of Liberty—so it doesn’t sound like tumbleweeds to me.

Back to the Premier: Why is the Premier hiding the facts about Ontario Place?

Interjections.

The NDP believes this government should be investing to get people the health care and education and housing they need, not spending $650 million on luxury spas.

Will the Premier stop the transfer of public funds into private pockets and cancel the Therme deal?

Interjections.

As the truth leaks out about this Premier’s secret 95-year deal with Therme, the worse it smells.

Normally, with a large procurement like this, Infrastructure Ontario would appoint a fairness monitor to ensure fairness and integrity. The NDP submitted a freedom-of-information request to get the fairness monitor report for the Ontario Place procurement. It turns out no such document exists.

Back to the Premier: Why wasn’t there a fairness monitor for this particular procurement?

Maybe it would be helpful if I explained a little bit about why that fairness monitor matters.

The NDP has learned that a few days before the bid submission deadline for the Ontario Place procurement, Infrastructure Ontario mysteriously extended the deadline by three weeks. Several bidders had already submitted their bids on time, but Therme, with its private luxury spa proposal, had not.

Speaker, to the Premier: Was the deadline extended to give Therme an advantage?

Fair procurements use scoring criteria and metrics to objectively assess each bid. Earlier this year, the NDP asked Infrastructure Ontario to provide these criteria and give us the scorecards for the Ontario Place bids. They won’t provide it. It seems there were no scoring criteria, no scorecards. If this seems familiar, well, it’s because this sounds an awful lot like the greenbelt grab.

If Therme was chosen based on fair and objective criteria, why won’t this Premier and this government release the details of the selection process?

Interjections.