Group rallies to reopen Ontario Science Centre

A general view of the Ontario Science Centre is shown in Toronto, Friday, May 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESSChris Young

A grassroots organization is calling on the provincial government to reopen the Ontario Science Centre after it was abruptly closed in June following the discovery of structural issues in the building.

Save Ontario’s Science Centre held a rally in a Scarborough park on Sunday, just days after the 55th anniversary of the museum’s opening. Organizer Floyd Ruskin spoke to those in attendance and said Premier Doug Ford has received as many as 90,000 letters from Ontarians who want the centre reopened.

“Out of those 90,000 letters that the premier has received, 42 per cent come from outside the city of Toronto. That makes it a province-wide initiative,” he said, adding that the letters represented all 124 of the province’s electoral districts.

The tourist attraction in North York was officially closed on June 21 after an engineering report found that there were “serious structural issues,” including the risk of a potential roof panel failure.

Although the report suggested other alternatives beyond closure, including blocking off the part of the building where roof panels could give way, Ford has suggested that repairing the aging structure would be “foolish” and cost more than $500 million.

“For decades, the Science Centre has been a source of social, educational, and economic prosperity, not just to the community around it, not just to Toronto, not just Ontario, but to all of Canada and around the world,” Adil Shamji, the MPP for Don Valley East, said at the Sunday rally. “And in one fell swoop, this premier comes in, and he says, we're going to shut it down with no notice, because supposedly, the roof's about to collapse. Well, look, we met architects, we had engineers, we had the people that built this science centre come out and say that it is A-OK.”

MPP Adil Shamji speaks at a rally to reopen the Ontario Science Centre on Sunday September 29, 2024.

Prior to the June closure, the province already had plans to move the tourist attraction to the redeveloped Ontario Place. However, that space won’t open until 2028 at the earliest and will have a much smaller footprint.

The province has said that it is looking for an interim space for a science centre until the new one is built, but that won’t be open until 2026.

In the meantime, the province said the fate of the current building will be subject to discussions with the City of Toronto, which owns the land where the former science museum was located.

All remaining staff at the Ontario Science Centre must vacate the building by Oct. 31.

With files from The Canadian Press