The flap over a tourist attraction coming to Ontario to celebrate the province’s 150th anniversary continues, with a Dutch artist claiming the big rubber ducky we’re getting isn’t the one.

Studio Florentijn Hofman recently sent an email to reporters saying the “World’s Largest Rubber Duck,” which is booked for a Toronto waterfront festival — and scheduled to make appearances at other events across the province this summer — is a costly “counterfeit” of its work.

But the company behind the 19-metre-high duck, which will hit Toronto waters on the July long weekend, said the studio’s complaints are “factually and legally incorrect.”

The World’s Largest Rubber Duck is patented and trademarked so it can be displayed at festivals, said co-owner Ryan Whaley.

He said the company paid Hofman $50,000 in 2014 for technical plans, but received what he characterized as sketches — so it designed and built its own duck.

Whaley said there has not been any legal fight with the artist, and there is nothing stopping anyone from building their own giant waterfowl — though the company has the rights to tout its duck as the “world’s largest.”

While some opposition politicians slammed the government for providing the Redpath Waterfront Festival with more than $121,000, Whaley said the duck is expensive to transport, noting that it and its pontoon-barge base require a semi-trailer truck and a crew of six to eight.

Tourists elsewhere have flocked to the attraction, Whaley said, adding that people dress in towels and bathing caps to take selfies and pictures in front of it.

“There is so much fun,” he said. “When it’s in Toronto, you’ll see.”