When the provincial government announced the sudden closure in February of Ontario Place, it portrayed the waterfront park as a money-losing disaster.

But, in fact, Ontario Place was not on the ropes.

Indeed, the Toronto waterfront park was well on its way to a dramatic turnaround, with overall attendance, revenues and visitor satisfaction up significantly in 2011, documents obtained by the Star indicate.

Surprisingly, though, the Ontario government cited only outdated statistics when it announced it was shutting down the park, arguing it was costing up to $20 million a year, was underutilized and was suffering huge declines in attendance.

The sharp discrepancy between what the McGuinty government told the public when it closed the park and the documents obtained by the Star raises serious questions about why Queen’s Park acted so quickly to close most of the park, including the water attractions and Cinesphere.

Why did Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Tourism Minister Michael Chan make Ontario Place’s operations look worse than they really were?

Was it to clear the way for an eventual casino on the site?

In recent months, Duncan has been championing the idea of a “golden mile” of luxury shops and entertainment on Toronto’s waterfront and Paul Godfrey, chair of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., has called for a casino-resort near the lakefront.

Ontario Place employees and suppliers “were absolutely shocked and ambushed by the abrupt, unplanned and thinly defended closure of Ontario Place,” one top official with close knowledge of Ontario Place said.

“It should never have been closed. No reason for it. ‘Saving money’ is a red herring in the overall scheme of things.”

Last February when they announced the closure, Duncan and Chan said the province would save $20 million annually, that crowds has dropped from 3.2 million a year in the 1970s to barely 300,000 in 2010. They also suggested most of the facilities were obsolete. The closure resulted in the loss of 48 full-time jobs and 600 summer positions.

“Ontario Place has been a drain on the government treasury for many years . . . it’s no longer sustainable,” Chan said at a Queen’s Park news conference.

“The park does not draw enough people to its gates to keep it sustainable in its current form,” Duncan told reporters.

However, the documents obtained by the Star show Ontario Place attendance in 2011 actually rose 89 per cent over 2010 levels. They also show revenues from rides, ground admissions, concessions and retail sales and Cinesphere tickets also increased dramatically last year.

Importantly, the documents indicate the park was on track to operate at a break-even point by 2015 — just three years from now.

Also, they show that Ontario Place was about to enter the 2012 season with plans to drive attendance and revenues even higher, largely due to more than $10 million in improvements approved by Queen’s Park in areas such as the popular water park and Cinesphere.

By releasing mostly outdated statistics, the McGuinty government created the impression that Ontario Place was not turning around, but instead had flatlined.

A finance ministry official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that the 2011 statistics were not available when Duncan announced the closure. The official also provided data from the Ontario Place annual report that showed a $12.9 million net loss for the park in 2011, the highest in the last decade. Part of that loss, though, was due to major new spending on the water park and Cinesphere.

Here are some of the key points in the documents obtained by the Star:

First, total attendance in 2011 was 880,000, far above the 300,000 figure cited for 2010 by the government. The 2011 figure includes 563,000 for the park, 255,000 for concerts and 61,000 CNE “crossovers.” In fact, the highest single-day attendance record was set in 2011 on Canada Day when 40,916 people entered the park. In addition, Ontario Place officials had told provincial bureaucrats they fully expected attendance would rise to 1.1 million in the next year or two.

The government claimed 3.2 million people visited the park at its peak. However, those figures are highly questionable because they were based on vague “crowd estimates.” Accurate turnstile counting didn’t start until 2002, at which time attendance was measured at 1.2 million.

Second, instead of costing a total of $20 million a year as the government claims, the average 10- to 20-year operating deficit at Ontario Place was between $2 million and $3 million. That’s significantly less than the cost to Queen’s Park of other provincially supported public institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Art Gallery and the Ontario Science Centre.

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For the coming year, Ontario Place revenues were expected to grow by 50 per cent and the deficit was expected to fall by 35 per cent. That would have put the park on a path to operate on a break-even basis by 2015.

Third, Queen’s Park approved more than $10 million in improvements to Ontario Place that were implemented barely a year ago. If it was so eager to improve the park not so long ago, why did it shut the entertainment venue so suddenly? Some $5 million was spent to expand the water park, including a huge new slide that not a single child has ever ridden down. The water park was projected to generate a $2-million profit.

As well, $2 million was spent last year to renovate Cinesphere with a new IMAX 3-D theatre. Attendance was up more than 80 per cent last year over 2010, with sellouts over the Christmas period.

Ontario Place management had extensive plans to attract new sponsors, more concerts and new attractions in 2013 and beyond, including having the park open earlier in the season and close later.

Overall, the documents show that 2011 was arguably the most successful for Ontario Place in many years.

And yet Queen’s Park never released this information when it announced the park closure, using 2010 figures to put a bad face on the park’s future.

“You’d never get away with that in the private sector,” the official said. “Are they trying to use ‘yesterday’s’ information to sell the public the idea that Ontario Place had to be pulled off life support, when more recent data suggest the patient was improving?”

So why was the McGuinty government so eager to close Ontario Place?

Did it want to clear the way for a casino? Or for luxury condos?

Two weeks ago, a government-appointed advisory panel led by John Tory, chair of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, tabled a report that called for parks, private residences and business on the Ontario Place site. It did not recommend a waterfront casino.

What is clear from these documents is that although Ontario Place may have been languishing, it wasn’t dead. Its pulse was improving — just before the government pulled the plug on it.

It’s time Queen’s Park came clean on all the information it has on Ontario Place.

And it’s time it told the public what it really has in store for Toronto’s waterfront.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca