In spring 2023, the Ontario Government announced that it was planning to move the Ontario Science Centre to a significantly smaller facility at Ontario Place. That planned move came under criticism from many quarters, including from the province?s Auditor General. But instead of backing down, the province doubled down. Shockingly to all, they decided to close the existing Science Centre earlier this summer, on the flimsy, now-debunked premise that an engineer?s roof report required the closure.
The Province?s original relocation plan, for all of its faults, ensured continuous access to a science educational facility in the region by proposing to reduce the existing science centre location to a smaller footprint in the transition period before a new science centre would be open. The cost to do so was estimated at $32 million. The decision to suddenly close the Science Centre at the beginning of this summer was an unexpected change of course. A temporary science centre, which is 1/10th of the size of the current facility, will not open until 2026. A new Science Centre will not open at Ontario Place until 2030 to 2034.
Appendix Q of Infrastructure Ontario’s business case for relocating the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place lays out the high risk?and high cost?of hosting a temporary science centre at an alternate site
A single page of the government?s business case for the relocation lays out, in broad strokes, what is happening right now?and the risks that the gove...