Toronto staff looking into Ontario’s legal duties, if any, to operate science centre

Toronto city staff are looking into what legal requirements the province may have to operate or maintain the Ontario Science Centre, after Premier Doug Ford’s government abruptly shuttered the facility citing structural concerns.

Mayor Olivia Chow said her office has been inundated with messages from people hoping to save the science centre, and she supported a motion Thursday from Coun. Josh Matlow asking staff to examine the province’s obligations and to look at the feasibility of the city taking over operations.

“All of you would have seen and experienced the joy and wonder of our kids, ourselves, grandkids and what they experienced in the science centre,” Chow said at the council meeting. 

“In fact, I’m having a hard time explaining to my grandchildren why they can’t go in the near future. Hopefully that will change. It is a very special place that sparked the imagination and curiosity and creates a love of science.”

The land on which the science centre has operated since 1969 in east Toronto is leased to the province by the city and its conservation authority.

One councillor expressed reservations about the financial implications of the city operating the science centre, as the facility has been receiving a roughly $19-million annual operating grant from the province and needs hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs.

“If we have any precious dollars they need to go to city objectives first,” Coun. Stephen Holyday said.

Before the sudden closure announcement one week ago, provincial plans were already in the works to relocate the science centre to the waterfront Ontario Place attraction, though that building isn’t set to open until 2028.

A deal last year between the city and province saw Ontario agree to take over operations of two Toronto highways in order to provide the city with some financial relief, and part of the deal included a discussion of maintaining some form of science programming at the original science centre site – Chow says she wants to get that started.

Matlow’s motion also asks staff to provide an analysis of the government-commissioned business case on relocating the science centre and the Ontario auditor general’s report on it. 

“I doubt that there’s anyone who either, like myself, has a child or has been a child themselves in Ontario since 1969 who doesn’t love the Ontario Science Centre,” he said.

“This is a place that has spurred our creativity, our imagination, sense of childhood, sense of wonder. It’s an incredibly important place.”

As well, city staff said they are looking at designating the science centre as a heritage property and that the issue could go before council in September.

However, changes that the Ford government made to provincial heritage laws last year would allow the province to exempt the building from any such designation if it advances a provincial priority such as transit or housing.

Ontario is in the midst of searching for a temporary home for the science centre before the Ontario Place facility opens. A request for proposals indicates it’s eyeing about 50,000 to 100,000 square feet — a fraction of the original building’s 568,000 square feet.