Save the Science Centre? Our very own Premier Doug Ford would like to move it to Ontario Place, so the land it is on can be developed.
Children, teens and adults all love the OSC! So many interactive activities that make learning fun. Oh, I love that static electricity ball! Meteorites from Mars, the science of climate change, our bodies, you name it science is involved and this is the perfect way to learn.
But why move it to Ontario Place? Many businesses and governments like to ignore repairs and updates until things start falling apart, so it may be more efficient to start from scratch again.
The centre is run by the province, which is on land owned by the city. Last April, Ford announced his plan to move the Ontario Science Centre and combine it with his government’s controversial plan to revamp Ontario Place. The province plans to demolish the centre in Don Mills, which first opened in 1969, and build housing in its place.
On the Ontario Science Centre website, it is noted the OSC will be an anchor tenant at the redeveloped Ontario Place with a “new custom-built, state-of-the-art facility, as well as in the iconic Cinesphere and Pod complex. Construction is expected to begin in 2025, with an opening slated for 2028.”
In December 2023, the office of the Auditor General of Ontario published its Value-for-Money Audit: Science Centres (https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en23/AR_sciencecentres_en23.pdf). The audit “reviewed the facts and figures present and determined the analysis was not independent but was designed to advance the following political objectives of the Ontario Government: 1. Sell the public on a for-profit spa” (Therme Group Canada Inc.), “2. by relocating OSC to Ontario Place. 3. Make OSC’S Flemingdon property surplus to government needs to benefit developers.”
Sound familiar?
Other interesting information for OSC kept popping up in the audit, identified on the website Save the Science Centre (https://savesciencecentre.com/) noting, “Deferred maintenance projects that were at risk of critical failure have been repeatedly denied funding.”
Evidently letting OSC deteriorate over time would boost the need for a new building.
In the Save the Science Centre website’s review of the audit notes: “The 2023 cost/benefit analysis used to support the decision to relocate the Ontario Science Centre did not include all costs for both options assessed – relocation and the rehabilitation of the current site.”
Thank you to MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon for leading the charge (mmcmahon.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org). McMahon is hosting a rally with Save Ontario Science Centre on March 3 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at East Lynn Park (1949 Danforth Ave).
You can sign a letter to the province through a link at the Save the Science Centre website; and you can go to the rally March 3rd.
If you want to check out what is happening at Ontario Place and ‘say yes to public space and no to a private spa at Ontario Place,’ also visit the website https://ontarioplaceforall.com/. At that website it says the province “plans to turn close to half of the park land over to ‘an Austrian spa franchise’ (owners of Therme Group Canada Inc.) which will cut down over 1,500 trees and level the internationally recognized landscape to accommodate its enormous 13 storey (half the size of Rogers Centre) pay-to-play glass spa facility.”
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Save the Ontario Science Centre
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26.02.2024
Save the Science Centre? Our very own Premier Doug Ford would like to move it to Ontario Place, so the land it is on can be developed.
Children, teens and adults all love the OSC! So many interactive activities that make learning fun. Oh, I love that static electricity ball! Meteorites from Mars, the science of climate change, our bodies, you name it science is involved and this is the perfect way to learn.
But why move it to Ontario Place? Many businesses and governments like to ignore repairs and updates until things start falling apart, so it may be more efficient to start from scratch again.
The centre is run by the province, which is on land owned by the city. Last April, Ford announced his plan to move the Ontario Science Centre and combine it with his government’s controversial plan to revamp Ontario Place. The province plans to demolish the centre in Don Mills, which first opened in 1969, and build housing in its place.
On the Ontario Science Centre website, it is noted the OSC will........
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