TORONTO, ON — Ontario’s Liberals today exposed the latest billion-dollar Doug Ford boondoggle, revealing how the recently released, sweetheart deal for Therme could cost Ontario taxpayers more than $2.1 billion.
“The Ontario Place giveaway is Doug Ford’s 407, giving away a public asset for pennies on the dollar. It is the second billion-dollar boondoggle revealed so far this year. Ford’s $2.1-billion giveaway is yet another sketchy deal designed to help his rich friends — and he isn’t being honest about the costs.
“This isn’t about helping the people of Ontario. If it were, Doug would have worked to get every penny possible for the people of this province. Just like the $8-billion Greenbelt giveaway and the billion-dollar boozedoggle, this sketchy deal is willingly and purposefully siphoning off billions to his buddies.”
— Bonnie Crombie, Leader of Ontario’s Liberals
New calculations reveal that Doug Ford is leaving a billion dollars of rental revenue on the table and putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in costs, all to benefit a foreign-owned, luxury spa company.
“This is a bad deal. It’s yet another giveaway of public assets and taxpayers’ money to benefit Ford’s friends. If Ford were a serious businessman, he would immediately fess up that this is a bad deal and he got played, and he’d go back and renegotiate. But he won’t.
“Ontario’s Liberals will investigate all of Ford’s sketchy deals when we form government and work to ensure we restore respect for taxpayers. But with his second billion-dollar boondoggle in 2024 now exposed, it is more clear than ever that Ford is not in it for you — he is spending all his time catering to his rich friends, while our healthcare and education systems suffer from his deliberate neglect. Ontario deserves so much better.”
— Bonnie Crombie, Leader of Ontario’s Liberals
Ontario’s Liberals are also launching both online and legislative petitions to call on Ford to reverse this bad deal: https://ontarioplace.ontarioliberal.ca/