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When was the last time you visited the Ontario Science Centre?

July 2024

When the Ontario government announced on 21 June that the Ontario Science Centre’s Don Mills building was to be closed effective immediately, due to serious structural issues with the roof, there have been no shortage of protests and screeching voices declaring that the building must be saved and not demolished.

People are acting like the Ontario Science Centre building is the Taj Mahal or Westminster Abbey. Toronto, like all cities, routinely demolish buildings with a lot more historical and architectural significance all the time, but suddenly the Science Centre building must be saved, regardless of the cost, because Ontario Premier Doug Ford ordered the closure due to the building being unsafe. Well, there are some engineering reports, and it was actually the Science Centre Board of Trustees that ordered the closure, so there’s that too.

We could also ask why the Board of Trustees, the direct overseers of the building, allowed the building to deteriorate to such a degree.

The building’s closure follows the closure in 2023 of the enclosed pedestrian bridge that took visitors from the main entrance portion of the facility to the exhibit areas, resulting in a shuttle bus being used to transport visitors to level 6, the main the exhibition area at the bottom of the ravine. No plans had been announced to rebuild or replace the decayed bridge.

Ironically, the people claiming that Ford is closing the building simply to justify his government’s plan to move it to a (hopefully) revitalized Ontario Place, would be the same ones calling for his head if even a thumbnail-size chunk of the roof fell on a 6-year-old child’s head. Make sure you don’t inhale the asbestos, if that happens.

I’m not convinced that the Ontario Place location is the best location for the Science Centre, but it’s not a bad one either, and if it’s going to be cheaper to build a new, energy efficient and environmentally-sustainable building, to use all the usual progressive buzzwords, then what’s the crisis?

If the Don Mills area residents want to bring forth a business proposal to maintain the building for other uses, such as a community centre, then they should raise the money to fund the repairs themselves. If the area residents are willing to put their money where their mouths are, maybe the province will sell them the building for a dollar and they can save their beloved building.

Like a lot of people, I hate to see buildings demolished unnecessarily, but sometimes it’s the only realistic option. As Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley points out in a column from 11 July: “The Ontario Science Centre is a dump and has been for years. It is a building that the former Wynne Liberal government was told to abandon due to neglect and the high costs of repairs in 2016.”

I’m also realistic enough to know that with government construction and rehabilitation projects, the budget always balloons well beyond the forecasted budget, so I won’t be surprised to see cost for the new building and/or the rehabilitation of the old one to soar into the stratosphere. Let’s just remember that little gem too.

By the way, when was the last time you visited the Ontario Science Centre?

Sources: Update from the Ontario Science Centre on building closure, Ontario Science Centre problems include end-of-life sprinkler systems | Toronto Sun, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Science_Centre, https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/science-centres-decline-makes-it-beyond-repair.

About the author

Bruce Forsyth

Bruce Forsyth served in the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve for 13 years (1987-2000). He served with units in Toronto, Hamilton & Windsor and worked or trained at CFB Esquimalt, CFB Halifax, CFB Petawawa, CFB Kingston, CFB Toronto, Camp Borden, The Burwash Training Area and LFCA Training Centre Meaford.

Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/when-was-the-last-time-you-visited-the-ontario-science-centre/

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