Spanish Amusement Park Operator Eyes Toronto Zoo

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Globe article:

Spanish Amusement Park Operator Eyes Toronto Zoo

patrick white
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 3:00AM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 9:16AM EDT

One of the world’s largest amusement park operators is eyeing the Toronto Zoo for a potential takeover after council’s decision to sell or lease the money-losing facility.

A U.S. lobby firm representing Madrid-based Parque Reunidos – owner of 82 international theme parks such as BonBon Land, Waterworld and Dutch Wonderland – filed papers with the city on Sept. 21, according to the lobbyist registry.

“The Toronto Zoo runs about a $20-million deficit; private organizations can do a better job,” says Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant with Innovative Strategic Management, the firm applying for lobbyist status.

Council’s Sept. 26 vote to privatize zoos parallels similar decisions across North America, but it creates as many quandaries as it solves. The appearance of a major amusement park operator on the scene, for instance, will fan fears that the city could sell the zoo to the highest bidder, surrendering its research-and-education mandate for a private company’s profit motive.

“The minute a company comes along to wring profit from it, the zoo is no longer a zoo. It’s just another tourist trap,” said zoo consultant David Towne, who has worked on governance transitions at several U.S. zoos.

City manager Joe Pennachetti has said he would like expressions of interest from the private sector for the “sale or operation” of the zoo. That leaves open the possibility for Toronto to retain ownership of the zoo while spinning off the task of running it to a non-profit – a model adopted in many major North American cities.

“It’s a model that works well, it’s a model other cities are rapidly evolving towards,” said Joe Torzsok, chair of the Toronto Zoo Board, citing San Diego, Dallas and the Vancouver Aquarium as examples.

Theoretically, the non-profit models offer the best of both private and public zoos: They are more attractive to donors than a government agency or a private company, they generally uphold principles of conservation and education that are central to most government-run zoos, and they operate under a streamlined management unencumbered by the city’s complex labour and purchasing rules....



.....Parque Reunidos operates several zoos – including a former municipal operation in Madrid – and adheres to care and conservation guidelines set by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. At the same time, Mr. Speigel said, a private company would inevitably shake things up.

“They are not going to come in and stick a roller coaster out by the ostriches,” he said of Parque Reunidos. “At the same time, for a major company to come in with the capacity to take on this kind of product and responsibility, they are not doing it out of the goodness of their heart.”....




Read More: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ontent=2198125

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Toronto Sun article:

Toronto Zoo Seeks Parks Canada Buy-Out

By Tom Godfrey ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 04:52 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 09:25 PM EDT

TORONTO - Talks were launched to create an undisclosed not-for-profit type agreement between the city and Parks Canada so the federal government can take over the cash-strapped zoo, city officials said.

The plan calls for the world-class zoo to become the jewel of the upcoming Rouge National Urban Park.

Zoo board members and park officials say its a way to help the city save money.

But Parks Canada says its plans don’t include the zoo.

City officials hope the zoo will become a focal point of the park that was last June designated by Ottawa as national park.

“The zoo is already a gateway into the national park,” Toronto Zoo Board of Management chair Joe Torzsok said. “It will be a jewel for the park since it already draws 1.3 million people a year.”

Torzsok said the zoo is in the middle of the 4,650-hectare Rouge Park that contains Carolinian forestland teeming with vulnerable wildlife on the eastern edge of Toronto. He said the process of making the Rouge a national park can take two years or more.

“This is a smart way of spending taxpayers money,” he said. “We are open to working with the federal government in building the national park.”

Torzsok said zoo and park staff already work together on projects and the facility has infrastructure in place to help the Rouge.

“We have a long track record and our board has discussed this possibility,” he said. “The city shouldn’t be in the business of running a zoo.”

But it’s not the feds’ job either.

“The Toronto Zoo facilities and its management requirements are entirely different than those of a national urban park,” Melissa Lantsman, spokesperson for federal Environment Minister Peter Kent, said. “That is not the role of Parks Canada — it will not be the role of Parks Canada in the future.”

Torzsok said an agreement with the Chinese government to bring two panda bears to the zoo would not be in jeopardy if the zoo becomes part of the park, but the visit may be on shaky ground if the zoo is sold....



Read More: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/18...-national-park