The Ontario government should not risk taxpayers' money by getting involved in one of two competing waterpark projects planned for the Ottawa region, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says.

Kevin Gaudet, Ontario director of the group that lobbies for lower taxes, less waste and accountable government, said it isn't a good idea that Ontario has committed $2 million to the Sunnyland waterpark.

He is concerned that the park doesn't take into account that a competing waterpark is slated to be built in the same region and promoters of both parks have agreed the region can't support two such facilities.

Governments don't really have the resources to look deeply at the numbers in studies they receive for projects like Sunnyland, and discrepancies are often overlooked, Gaudet said.

"They do poor due diligence in advance. And that's because, not surprisingly, governments really aren't experts at business, they're experts at government," he said.

"And once the money goes in, it's almost impossible to do an accountability of how the money was used or whether or not it did what it was supposed to do from the first place."

Richard Morgan, a consultant involved in the proposal to build Sunnyland in Limoges, Ont., just east of Ottawa, confirmed the feasibility study used to secure the government commitment to the $50-million park did not take into account the Alottawatta waterpark project planned for Ottawa's west end.

The study was commissioned by the local municipality of Prescott Russell in the fall of 2006.

"At that point," Morgan said. "There was no real sign that there might be any competitive product."

But he added that the estimates in the study, which predict 12,000 to 14,000 visitors a day to Sunnyland, were conservative and therefore still reliable.

The numbers are based on the peak number of visitors at Village Vacances Valcartier near Quebec City, which contains a similar waterpark operated by Sunnyland's promoter Guy Drouin.

However, Splish Splash, which is located close to New York City and is one of the biggest waterparks in North America, gets only 7,000 to 8,000 visitors on an average summer day, park spokeswoman Nancy Acari told CBC News.

Nevertheless, MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde, who represents Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, the riding where Sunnyland will be built, said he thinks the government investment will be well worth it considering the available estimates.

"That $2 million would be paid back within even less than two years with what we are expecting there," he said, adding that the project will create over 500 jobs during the summer.

Drouin told CBC News earlier in January he is concerned about the competing $30 million Alottawatta park that is to be built by Rick Hunter, president of the waterslide equipment company Proslide.