It’s an unusually mild winter day in Toronto, but that doesn’t make the icy waters of Lake Ontario any less inviting. Still, Sarah Fruchtmann jumped into the lake at Michaelhof Beach wearing a bathing suit and swimming cap.
She is not alone. There were seven others, some gathered around the lifeless campfire. They are all members of an informal swimming group that gathers year-round at Toronto’s only downtown beach.
But their icy ceremony came to an end weeks later when a steel mesh fence cut off access to a footbridge leading to the island where the beach is located. A sign said it was closed. The island, known as West Island, is one of two islands in Ontario Place, which was once an amusement park and exhibition hall.
The province of Ontario, which owns Ontario Place, is handing the West Island over to an Austrian spa developer on a 95-year lease to build what it calls a massive “wellness oasis” complete with hot and cold bathrooms and other “amenities.” .
The plan has drawn widespread criticism from local politicians and park users in Canada’s largest city, with the massive lake virtually inaccessible to the public from downtown Toronto.
“I’m sad,” Ms. Frutman said. “It feels like some policymakers may not see that people are really taking advantage of what we have here, and that these things can be built up, not rebuilt. I don’t know why you would privatize something like this.
Ontario Place opened in 1971 as the province’s response to the 67th Montreal World’s Fair, which became an international hit.
Between the east and west islands stood five exhibition halls filled with exhibits and films about the province, as well as a geodesic dome that housed the then-novel IMAX cinema, a film technology developed in Canada.
Over time, Ontario Place featured an amusement park, water park, pier, restaurants, log rides, and an open-air concert theater, all designed by one of Canada’s most renowned landscape architects, Michael Hough ) designed parkland stitched together.
The New York Times published an article shortly after the opening saying, “It looks like a World’s Fair at first glance, only better.”
While Ontario Place attracted visitors in its early years, low admission fees and weak concession revenue kept it in the red long before it finally closed in 2010, leading to confusion over what to do with it. The open space of the west island is transformed into a park. (A concert venue on another island is leased to Live Nation.)
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has long wanted to leave his mark on the city’s waterfront.
No one, not even critics of the spa, is questioning the Ford government’s decision to use provincial funds to repair and reopen the exhibit hall and IMAX theater.
But there was little support when the government unveiled plans by Vienna-based company Therme to build a commercial spa that would take up most of the West Island and stand nearly 150 feet tall.
Unlike Therme spas in Europe, which are primarily aimed at adults, Ontario Place’s proposal would add an indoor family water park. (Nude bathing, another feature at some stores in Europe, will be skipped.) Adult admission starts at about $40 Canadian, or about $30 U.S., the company said.
About 840 trees on the island will be felled, and outdoor public space on the west island will be largely limited to green spaces on the spa’s roof and wide pathways around the spa.
The beach will be demolished, but spa developers say there are plans to build a larger replacement. But instead of facing Lake Ontario, its plan would face the new beach toward the shore, creating a landscape dominated by concrete sea walls and a busy six-lane boulevard.
The spa proposal has faced opposition from the City of Toronto, with officials citing the size, scale and location of the spa. They also said it would overwhelm the existing pavilion and dilute the officially designated historic significance of the local landmark.
The province plans to build a 2,100-space underground parking garage in the West Island as part of the project, which goes against Toronto’s efforts to prioritize public transit and includes a new subway line that will start across from Ontario Place. city officials said.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said she once took her grandchildren to the West Island. “There’s not enough space on the waterfront,” she said. “It gets good use any time of year.”
Mr. Ford responded to Toronto’s criticism by pushing through provincial legislation that removed the city’s authority over the spa project and expropriated some Toronto-owned land for garages.
Mr. Ford’s office referred questions about the proposal to Ontario Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, who said the spa would make the area “a place that people really enjoy — but now This is no longer the case.”
She added that the spa will make Ontario Place an even more attractive destination in the winter.
“Canada is a very cold place most of the year,” she said, “and it’s important to have indoor facilities that families can enjoy.”
Therme Chairman and CEO Robert Hanea dismissed criticism that spas would turn public spaces into private playgrounds and reduce the number of people using them.
“We are a company that brings extraordinary welfare infrastructure to Toronto,” he said in an interview. “Infrastructure that millions of people and their families can use — people who don’t have cabins, people who can’t fly south in the winter.”
“I don’t think,” he added, “public spaces are just parks.”
How much rent the developer will pay to Ontario has not been disclosed.
The backlash against the project has already had some impact. Therme has lowered the maximum height of the spa and will use the landfill to expand the area of the west island to provide more public space.
A citizens’ group has filed a lawsuit in court challenging the project’s lack of environmental assessment, among other issues. The province responded by asking the court to dismiss the case because it argued the law pushed by Mr. Ford eliminated the need for environmental reviews.
“What you’re looking at is an urban park, a waterfront park, that has multiple uses,” said Ken Greenberg, a Toronto urban designer and a member of the group that filed the legal challenge.
“It’s a question of balance,” he added, “and their proposal would just kill that balance and put it behind a paywall that many people can’t afford.”
