Groupe Écorécréo will ultimately not be part of the Ontario Place revitalization project, a site similar to Parc Jean-Drapeau in downtown Toronto. The company, which notably offers activities at the Old Port of Montreal, announced in July 2021 that it was one of the three companies that embodied the renewal of the site.
In a statement, Sofia Sousa-Dias, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure, confirmed the information first revealed by the Globe and Mail. The departure of Écorécréo is due, according to the spokesperson, to “unforeseen challenges”. The use of the land which was reserved for the possible installations of Écorécréo “has not yet been determined and is open to other opportunities”, specified the ministry.
As these lines were written, the co-owner of the company, Jean-Philippe Duchesneau, had not responded to a call and a text message. In July, he had declared by e-mail to the To have to Écorécréo had submitted plans and the layout of the proposed activities to Infrastructure Ontario, a Crown agency that manages Ontario Place. Jean-Philippe Duchesneau said that discussions with the organization were “in progress” and that the project “continued to evolve”.
Écorécréo was selected following a call for proposals process launched by the province. The company planned to build an adventure park on the site, a former amusement park. In an interview, in the fall of 2021, Jean-Philippe Duchesneau told the To have to that he hoped the Toronto project would mark the beginning of a breakthrough in the North American market. “We had been looking for a location in Toronto for six years,” he said.
The arrival of Écorécréo, from the Austrian group Therme — which wants to build an aquatic complex — as well as the modifications planned by Live Nation to an existing amphitheater have created controversy in 2021. Some members of the The Future of Ontario Place coalition, a group that opposes the province’s revitalization plan, particularly criticized the lack of public consultation. Many Torontonians oppose the privatization of the site.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.