Open letter asks TIFF to reconsider partnering with group looking to privatize Ontario Place

A grassroots group is calling on the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to end its controversial partnership with the for-profit Austrian company Therme Group, whom they say will “destroy Ontario Place” with its planned private spa.

Ontario Place for All, a community collective whose goal is to keep Ontario Place “a vibrant, publicly accessible place,” issued an open letter earlier this month to TIFF, calling on the arts organization to reconsider the partnership, which they argue “stands against (TIFF’s) organizational values of inclusivity.”

The letter comes amid increased scrutiny over Therme’s “recreational and wellness facility” at Toronto’s waterfront, which would cost $350 million and feature a nine-storey facility that will include saunas, steam rooms, massage therapy and a large water park area.

“Therme Group’s proposal is about destruction, loss, not creation. It would privatize actively used public land,” the letter stated, adding that more than 800 trees will be cut down on Ontario Place’s West Island to make way for the facility and no public consultation has been held over the planned project.

Neither TIFF nor Therme responded before publication to the contents of the letter and other questions about the partnership.

Ontario Place for All said the partnership was “announced quietly” by TIFF and Therme in 2021. A tweet posted Aug. 6, 2021 by Therme Canada described the partnership, called the Cinematic Cities initiative, as a “10-year philanthropic program that will promote the role of film in creating more human cities.”

In a short video shared by Therme Canada in the tweet, Joana Vicente, the former executive director and co-head of TIFF, said the initiative was founded on the two organizations’ “strong value alignment in promoting the role of art and film in creating more human cities.”

TIFF also tweeted later that day, saying the organization was looking forward “to our new cultural partnership.”

The open letter, co-signed by the organization’s co-chairs Norm Di Pasquale and Cynthia Wilkey, said at the time of the announcement, “the Therme project was an idea without firm details,” but “the extent of the impact…is now known.”

TIFF, a not-for-profit cultural organization, has partnered with Ontario Place before, when it was a public facility, routinely hosting screenings at Ontario Place’s IMAX cinesphere. Last November, the province announced it had submitted a development application to the city to create a “world-class, year-round destination” at the site of the former waterfront amusement park, which closed in 2012.

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