SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2024 09:00AM
  • Mar/21/24 10:40:00 a.m.

The minister’s timeline keeps changing, and that’s what happens when you make major infrastructure decisions in the shadows and the backrooms.

The government had already decided on this plan more than a year and a half before they announced that Therme won the contract. The documents we uncovered appeared to show the undisclosed attraction plan for Ontario Place has the exact same footprint as Therme’s proposal—quite a coincidence.

So, Speaker, did the government give preferential treatment to Therme for its luxury spa proposal?

Last year, the Premier confirmed that his family friend Carmine Nigro was negotiating a mysterious sole-source agreement with Ontario Live. Ontario Live happens to be run by another family friend, Zlatko Starkovski. What is the relationship between the secret Ontario Live agreement and the secret phase 2 plan for Ontario Place?

People shouldn’t have to make freedom-of-information requests to find out about a major infrastructure project happening with their money. People shouldn’t need a chart of the Premier’s friends and family to find out who is securing sole-source contracts.

We need this Premier and this minister to come clean about this project. So to what extent were these deals made to benefit the Premier and his personal friends?

How can this shady deal proceed considering this government is already under investigation by the RCMP?

Interjections.

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  • Mar/21/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Thank you to the member from Brantford–Brant for the question. During the PDAC mining conference this year, I signed a community development agreement with the chiefs of Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation. This agreement is part of our $1-billion investment to build a corridor to prosperity that will connect First Nations partners to the road network and bring growth and prosperity to the region. It will support shovel-ready infrastructure projects that will improve the well-being and readiness of First Nations partners, getting us one step closer to building the roads to the Ring of Fire.

I want to commend Chief Bruce and Chief Cornelius for their vision and commitment to building stronger communities and thank them for their dedication to moving these projects forward. I look forward to strengthening our partnership as we take the next steps together. I am honoured to be associated with these two leaders.

Working together, we will create an unprecedented era of prosperity that will secure a better future for the next generations. That is what these projects are all about. I know the community development agreement we reached will help us to work together to prepare for a future that is connected by roads and a future that unlocks the area for mining that the previous governments neglected. We are getting it done.

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