City councillor asks Toronto to take over Ontario Science Centre
Coun. Josh Matlow puts forward motion asking city to step in after province shut it down last week
A Toronto councillor is asking the city to take over running the Ontario Science Centre, in a bid to keep it at its current location after the province abruptly closed its doors last week over safety concerns about the building's roof.
Coun. Josh Matlow, who represents Ward 12—Toronto-St. Paul's, says he's put forward a motion that would require city staff to conduct an "objective analysis" to see if it's feasible for Toronto to take over running the centre. Council will consider the motion at its meeting on Wednesday.
"My motion looks at: can we continue offering programming and having a building there that continues serving the public in the community?" he said in an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Monday.
Matlow's effort comes as the province is facing an outcry from members of the public and officials since it decided to close the science centre, located at Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road, on Friday afternoon.
The province already had plans to move the centre to Ontario Place as part of a redevelopment of the waterfront property, but Friday's closure came earlier than expected and without warning.
Province 'determined' to let building fall apart: Matlow
As fences were being placed around the property Friday, the Ministry of Infrastructure announced it was closing the centre indefinitely to protect the health and safety of visitors and staff after an engineering report found structural issues with some of the building's roof panels.
The report from engineering firm Rimkus Consulting Group said some of the panels would require replacement or reinforcement by Oct. 31, 2024, to avoid a potential collapse under a significant buildup of snow, but it stopped short of recommending a closure of the building.
Fixing the roof would cost between $22 million and $40 million, the ministry said, and require the centre be closed for up to two years.
But the roof isn't the only part of the building that requires fixing.
A business case published last year by the province found it required hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance work on the walls and in its mechanical, electrical and elevator systems.
Matlow said Doug Ford's government seems "absolutely determined" to see the building fall apart.
"Not only is there no transparency, there doesn't seem a willingness to look at how to fix the building," he said.
The property is owned by the City of Toronto and its conservation authority and is leased to the science centre. A recent deal between the city and province included an agreement to discuss future uses for the site, including some science-based programming, but no decisions have been made.
'The result the Ford government wanted': professor
The closure comes just a week before schools are out for the summer and before summer camps are set to begin in July.
Sandford Borins, a professor emeritus of public management at the University of Toronto Scarborough, says the province could have saved the centre.
"If you had a government that wanted to keep the science centre open, it would have been in touch with [engineering firm] very quickly, asked them what needed to be done before winter, and would have started on the work long before the report was completed," he said.
"The result wasn't inevitable. This was the result the Ford government wanted," he said.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Saturday the city will do what it can to help those affected by the closure.
"The City of Toronto will do everything we can to assist so that kids will have a chance to be wondered by science," Chow said.
"The City of Toronto will look for spaces. We'll co-operate with the workers, the board and the Ontario government to see what we can do to assist."
Province says safety is priority
In a news conference Friday, officials from the infrastructure ministry and Infrastructure Ontario said the science centre will be moved to an interim location yet to be determined, before its final move to Ontario Place.
The science centre building at Ontario Place, next to a planned private spa built by Austrian company Therme, won't open until 2028.
The province has said it is making every effort to avoid disruption to science centre programming.
It also said it's confident that moving the science centre will save taxpayers money.
Infrastructure Ontario is issuing a request for proposals on Monday to try to find a temporary science centre location until the new one at Ontario Place opens. The science centre is also looking at providing mobile, virtual and pop-up offerings.
WATCH | Advocacy group questions timing of sudden closure:
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said at a news conference Monday that the engineering firm was clear the roof would need to be replaced over a period of two to five years.
"There's lots of structural issues with the building. It was my hope that we could keep the building alive until the new science centre was built, but unfortunately we have to take the warning signs of engineers very seriously," she said.
"I am not going to risk the safety of workers and children."
Surma said the centre needed to be closed over the summer to "decommission" the building and move out all the exhibits.
With files from Ryan Patrick Jones and The Canadian Press