Photo by James Brittain
The Office of the Auditor General of Ontario recently issued a report about the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto and Science North in Sudbury struggling with financial sustainability issues and declining attendance.
On December 6, acting auditor general Nick Stavropoulos said that the government made decisions about the Ontario Science Centre?s move to Ontario Place with “preliminary and incomplete cost information” as well as insufficient input from key stakeholders.
?The province?s science centres are both facing their own challenges,? said Stavropoulos. ?But decisionmakers were not fully informed when planning for the future of the Ontario Science Centre ? this is critically important for all decisions going forward.? While the Province of Ontario has been assessing the Ontario Science Centre?s move to Ontario Place since 2016, the auditor general report noted that the information provided to support the decision did not include a complete list of costs for a  comparison of relocating versus remaining at the same location.
The report also noted that the financing transaction and legal costs for the construction of the new science centre projected under the public private partnership (P3) model, or similar costs associated with staying at the current location, were not included. Incremental parking costs for the relocation were also not included.
The audit also found that consultations with key stakeholders, including the centre?s lan...