Sameer Sayed points out the fencing to his three children (from left) Maryam Sayed, Hammaad Sayed and Rayyaan Sayed outside the Ontario Science Centre on June 30, 2024.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The provincial government’s decision to close the Ontario Science Centre was solidified with the release of a second report about the poor state of the building, which officials used to further justify the move to shutter the 55-year-old facility immediately.
The government released the report as a lawyer representing a group opposing the plans for Ontario Place said the province is halting work at the Toronto waterfront site, where the replacement for the Science Centre is destined, until a constitutional challenge is heard.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said Thursday closing the current Ontario Science Centre last month was a difficult decision but the right one, saying repairs to the complex would cost nearly half-a-billion dollars and would not guarantee it could operate safely.
“It is unfortunate that we are in this circumstance. It is terrible. Again, none of us wanted to make a decision like this,” Ms. Surma said at a virtual press conference.
Meanwhile, Eric Gillespie, a lawyer for a group challenging the Ontario Place redevelopment, said the government has consented to halting work at the Ontario Place site until the hearing of the Ontario Place Protectors’ constitutional challenge to the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act later this month.
“Our client is very pleased no further destruction will take place and is looking forward to the case being heard on July 19,” Mr. Gillespie said in a statement.
Ms. Surma would not confirm Thursday when asked if work had stopped at the site, saying the matter is before the courts.
The second report, a peer review of an engineering report last month that concluded parts of the science centre’s concrete roof could collapse this winter under the weight of snow, found the risks identified by the initial report as “reasonable.”
Ms. Surma added that the province plans to decommission the building safely – which involves preserving and moving the archives and exhibits – but it’s up to the City of Toronto, which owns the land, to decide what to do with it. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The province plans to build a new science centre at its redeveloped Ontario Place on Toronto’s waterfront, but that won’t be completed until 2028. An interim facility is not expected to open until 2026, with applications for the new location due by July 23.
Michael Lindsay, president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, told reporters Thursday the facility did not close simply because of the roof; a “multiplicity of issues” were affecting operations, including heating, cooling and access to buildings. The government released further details about the state of the science centre, including a lack of heat in one of the three buildings, failing electrical systems, an inaccessible pedestrian bridge and asbestos.
The surprise decision to shutter the sprawling complex, opened in 1969 in Toronto’s Flemingdon Park area and designed by the late renowned architect Raymond Moriyama, sparked outcry among community advocates and opposition politicians. Critics accused successive governments of neglecting the facility for years and said the Ford government could save it if it wished.
Brian Rudy, a partner at Moriyama Teshima Architects, the firm that designed the Ontario Science Centre, cast doubt on the government’s cited cost to repair the facility. “The $500-million price tag quoted for fixing the facility is a new number and feels grossly inflated,” he said in an e-mail statement. “The public should demand to see an actual cost report that shows how they arrived at this much higher number.”
The province also on Thursday released an Infrastructure Ontario report about the facility from 2016, two years before Premier Doug Ford was elected, that pointed to health and safety risks as well as high operating costs and declining revenues.
The first engineering report, prepared by the firm Rimkus Consulting Group, lists as its first recommendation that if the building’s high-risk roof panels are not replaced by Oct. 31, there should be “restricted access or full closure to prevent any persons from walking in areas where high risk panels are present.”
The peer-review, conducted by VanBoxmeer & Stranges Engineering Ltd., concurred with the conclusions.
“Based on our review of the documents, and our random sampling visual review of the condition of the … roof panel structures, we find that evaluation of the risks identified by Rimkus are reasonable,” the second report said.
Jason Ash, a spokesperson for the group Save the Ontario Science Centre, said the peer review has not changed his group’s belief that the facility’s closing was unnecessary.
“Premier Ford wants to demolish the Ontario Science Centre and he’s throwing out all the stops,” Mr. Ash said.
Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, who is opposed to the government’s planned private-sector spa and waterpark at Ontario Place, said it’s the province’s responsibility to work with the city in deciding the future of the Ontario Science Centre. “We expect the province to pay for its repairs,” he said in an interview.
He also disputed Mr. Ford’s claims that the city can do whatever it wants with the OSC. “Under the existing lease that the province signed in 1965, it created a science centre,” he said. “When Ford says it can be whatever it wants, that’s just not true.”
The cost of repairing the Ontario Science Centre has been hotly debated, with some pointing out that not all the money would be needed up front. Toronto’s deputy city manager, David Jollimore, said the number required in the next few years would be around $106-million.
Many have stepped up to offer funding to cover some of the costs, including acclaimed computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton and former Shopify executives. Moriyama Teshima Architects offered their services pro bono.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misattributed a quote from John Carmichael to another official. This version has been corrected.