Challenges related to travel logistics, undersized facility space and inadequate surrounding amenities thwart convention business at provincially operated venues in Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario’s acting Auditor General, Nick Stavropoulos, has concluded. His newly released value-for-money audit charts the waning competitiveness of the Metro Toronto and Ottawa Convention Centres among similar facilities in other North American cities.
Audit findings show that MTCC lost 23 bids between 2017 and 2019 due to insufficient nearby hotel space and OCC was rejected for seven events scheduled between 2022 and 2026 because of the limited number of direct flights into Ottawa International Airport. As of June 2023, MTCC registered a 44 per cent decline in bookings relative to the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, while OCC had dropped 50 per cent from previous levels.
The auditor general recommends that Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, which has oversight for the two Crown agencies, consider introducing incentives to help both venues attract business, including incentives for the development of hotels in the vicinity. It also urges the Ministry to respond to the redevelopment proposals and plans MTCC submitted in 2019.
The audit highlights the lack of contiguous space to accommodate large tradeshows and conferences that might otherwise come to MTCC, and cites 20 international conventions, collectively spawning an estimated $490 million economic impact, that have not rebooked in MTCC because they have “effectively outgrown” the space. With roughly 580,000 square feet of rentable space, MTCC is about three times larger than OCC, with eight exhibit halls versus three at OCC and 77 meeting rooms to OCC’s 28. However, MTCC’s quirky configuration splices two medium-sized facilities together with 182,000 square feet in the north building, facing onto Front Street, and the larger remainder to the south connected via an elevated interior bridge.
“We found that in terms of its contiguous space, MTCC ranked low, or 18 out of 21 among a sample of comparable Tier 1 convention centres in North America. Further, many convention centres have expanded in the past 26 years, since MTCC was last expanded (1997), so MTCC has fallen in the size rankings,” the audit states.
Turning to Ottawa, the audit discusses decline in the downtown core that is undermining its appeal as a convention destination. As of June 2023, foot-traffic was still gauged at less than two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels, with associated reduced vibrancy of the downtown area. The report suggests “changes to where people work in Ottawa since the COVID 19 pandemic have had a lasting impact on the character of the downtown area” and identifies the federal government’s hybrid workplace model as one of the prime upheavals.
The report recommends that OCC management work collaboratively with Ottawa’s tourism bureau, downtown business associations and other stakeholder groups to promote their mutual interests and enhance downtown ambience. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport is advised to consider how it develop or support such initiatives.
In other audit findings, it tallies about $17 million worth of capital repairs now required at MTCC and a nearly $16 million dollar capital repair backlog at OCC. The audit also affirms client groups’ general satisfaction with both convention centres. Among those surveyed in the years from 2013 to 2023, 95 per cent of clients gave their experiences at MTCC a positive rating, while, using a scale of 5, event planners gave the OCC an average score between 4.5 and 5 in each of those years.
