Introducing the Therme Canada Project – And Why It’s So Controversial

Toronto’s waterfront is set to receive Canada’s largest indoor waterpark. On the surface, this is a fantastic opportunity. Unfortunately, it’s become mired in a battlefield of corporate lobbying, partisan politics, and industry skepticism. So what’s the deal with Therme Canada?

What is Therme Canada?

Therme Canada is a planned wellbeing oasis, public park, and indoor waterpark on Toronto’s West Island. It serves as a redevelopment of the wider Ontario Place campus and directly replaces the former Froster Soak City waterpark, which operated from 1978 to 2010.

Helming the project is Therme Group, best known for developing the highly successful venue in Bucharest, Romania. Not the slightly more recognizable location in Erding, Germany, mind you, although they did recently acquire it; more on that later.

A Brief History of Ontario Place

Ontario Place was originally opened in 1971 after the success of the Ontario Pavilion at Montreal’s Expo 67. Their entertainment offerings flourished over the years with the addition of several attractions, most notably the Wilderness Adventure Ride log flume and Froster Soak City.

In 2010, Ontario Place began a renovation in response to a long trend of deficits and declining attendance, anchored by the construction of two new Topsy Turvy funnel waterslides. However, after the 2011 season and $10 million in taxpayer dollars spent, it was decided to pull the plug on the park instead. Select waterpark attractions ‒ including the new slides ‒ were sent to Canada’s Wonderland, but the park itself was left abandoned.

A private business would have seen regular investment and evolution over time, ensuring continuous reasons to return. As a government-run park, however, the path forward was to completely start over from scratch and promise a never-realized return for Canada’s 150th Anniversary in 2017. And so ended the story of Ontario Place.

Role of the Government

When Doug Ford’s administration rose to provincial government in 2018, the bidding process was launched for the redevelopment of Ontario Place. Therme Group ultimately won the contract over 33 other bidders, the likes of which included Triple Five Group, Cirque du Soleil, and Strom Nordic Spa.

An investigation by the Auditor General has since judged the process to not be “fair, transparent or accountable” for bidding companies and the general public alike. If anything, politicians seemingly gave Therme Group the edge from the beginning. Conflicts of interest for multibillion-dollar projects are generally frowned upon for government contracts.

Details of the lease agreement were published in October, which will require the company to spend $700 million in construction and an accumulated $1.96 billion in rent and maintenance over the course of its 95-year duration. Upon the handover date, terminating the contract would require the government to provide a five-year notice period after ten years and pay for the demolition and rebuilding of Therme Canada elsewhere. In short, pulling out would be prohibitively difficult and expensive.

At the same time, the province also began demolition on West Island, with a staggering 865 trees being felled overnight. Work is currently underway to prepare the island for construction, which Therme is required to begin by Spring 2026.

Opposition

Local activists and opposing politicians have united on several fronts against Therme Canada. Some Toronto residents mourn the loss of the public park and habitat, while others were angered by the government’s actions to dodge oversight and award such a lucrative lease to a private firm. A redesign of the facility in 2023 to reduce the building’s footprint and increase the amount of natural, publicly accessible space did nothing to quell disdain.

Key critics, however, have stepped to the wayside. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, for instance, was elected in 2023 on the promise of relocating Therme Canada elsewhere, but backed down later that year in exchange for the province to assume financial responsibility of the city’s highways. Ex-city councillor and former Liberal Member of Parliament Adam Vaughan was also recently hired as a senior adviser to Therme.

All provincial opposition parties have pledged to terminate Therme Canada’s contract in spite of the enormous costs associated with it. Doug Ford was elected to a third four-year majority term this past winter, assuring a smooth road forwards for Therme Canada.

Unravelling Therme Group

Last month, the New York Times published a scathing report on Therme Group, claiming that they had misrepresented itself to the Ontario government. The company falsely claimed to operate six locations across Europe while it’d only built the Bucharest resort from the ground up. The story, however, wasn’t theirs at the time.

Enter Therme Erding, best known as Europe’s thermal bath complex. Enthusiasts will probably recognize it from their famous Galaxy indoor waterpark. It was brought to life in 1999 by architect Josef Wund, who followed up on its success with four other locations across Germany. The one in Romania, on the other hand, came from a different Therme Group in 2016, the same entity now pursuing the project in Toronto.

Therme Group CEO Robert Hanea had a longstanding friendship with the Wund Foundation, which happily shared their brand name and architecture for the Bucharest resort in 2016. Although Josef Wund was tragically killed in a private jet accident the following year, the partnership has since continued and Therme Group bought out the Erding complex in December. Yes, the concept’s success is legitimate; the company, however, took credit for their partner’s accomplishments in their pitch to the Ontario government.

Infrastructure Ontario’s audit also raised concerns about Therme Group’s financial stability, claiming that the company had low liquidity and its equity before 2020 came in at less than one million euros. Constant trading between the partner companies has made its financial situation tough to judge, although the Canadian project is only a facet of a larger picture.

Therme Group is also actively developing major destinations in Dallas, Dubai, Frankfurt, Manchester, and Washington D.C. Any of these developments materializing would make them a key player in the theme park industry… so how are they seen by them?

A Reflection Upon IAAPA

In November of last year, I attended IAAPA’s Big Canadian Breakfast, which is held annually at the Orlando Expo and usually features a guest speaker from an attraction back home. This past year it was Therme’s first time briefing the industry about their Toronto project.

The presentation went smoothly for the most part. They spoke enthusiastically about bringing home the country’s largest waterpark, for which a 22-slide reservation has been made with Canadian manufacturer WhiteWater West and is targeting an opening as early as 2029.

Largely absent was any reference to the turmoil at home. My cheeky inquiry about it during the Q&A period generated reassurances about how the team was doing their best with the job at hand. The implications certainly weren’t lost on the room, however, and conversations between the executives in attendance spilled out onto the trade floor that morning. To encapsulate the tone and opinions I heard, I’m going to borrow an observation from one industry professional.

An Unrealistic Attendance Figure

Therme Canada anticipates an annual attendance exceeding 2.5 million guests for a venue spread out over 67,000 square meters and mostly featuring waterslides that seat 1-2 riders at a time. The figure is on par with Chimelong Waterpark in Guangzhou, China, which is consistently the highest-attended waterpark in the world. They encompass more than 115,000 square meters and feature a roster of mostly higher capacity attractions. In April 2025, they launched three of the largest raft slides ever built by Proslide Technology, the scale of which is beyond reach for 95% of waterparks worldwide.

Therme’s metrics do hold advantages over Chimelong, in which the facility will be year-round and the attendance figure encompasses the surrounding public space as a whole. Regardless, the Greater Toronto Area has a population of roughly 6.7 million while Guangzhou alone houses closer to 15 million residents. In addition, the neighboring Toronto Islands see an annual attendance of 1.4 million visitors, most of which comes between the Spring and Fall. Therefore, Therme’s projected figure is ludicrous at best and signals a lack of understanding.

Conclusion

Toronto would benefit massively from Therme Canada’s proposal. It stands to create new jobs, attract year-round tourism, and revitalize the abandoned West Island.

The project was always going to attract staunch opposition, but several bureaucratic eggs have been broken in the process of circumventing it, which sets a bad precedent for usage of government powers. Therme’s involvement and corporate affairs are also sketchy.

Theme park industry leaders and the majority of the Ontario public are cautiously optimistic. But there are too many red flags to disregard. I would like to see Therme Canada to finish what’s been started and succeed, for if it doesn’t then everything will have been for naught.

Did you ever get to experience Ontario Place? Would you visit Therme Canada? Let us know in the comments section below.