Families, community members condemn sudden loss of Ontario Science Centre

TORONTO — Families and community members mourned the loss of a beloved institution Sunday after the Ontario Science Center abruptly closed its doors for good last week amid concerns about the condition of its roof.

The provincial government already had plans to move the 55-year-old science center from its current location in Ontario Place when it announced the sudden closure Friday — a move it said was designed to protect the health and safety of visitors and staff.

The province said it received an engineering report this week that found a number of roof panels “in a distressed, high-risk condition” that could fail under the weight of snow this winter.

A crowd of parents, children, educators and other community members gathered at a park in west Toronto on Sunday to demand the province restore the center to its current location.

Children whistled and held up homemade signs declaring their love for the building as the crowd chanted “Save our science center.”

Katarina Gligorijevic and Colin Geddes had planned to take their son Sasha to the center on Friday but had an unexpected scheduling conflict, meaning the eight-year-old was unable to visit one last time before it closed .

The science center was “one of the cornerstones of our program” for Sasha, who is homeschooled and loved spending hours looking at the frog section, his parents said.

“The abruptness of the closure felt extremely unnecessary and cruel,” Gligorijevic said.

“To not give the thousands of children in the city who love the science center the chance to go one last time … was totally unnecessary and totally unreasonable,” she said. “It seems like it’s not just an attack on a major cultural institution, but on education as well.”

Geddes noted that neither teachers nor families were consulted, adding that many educators plan their curriculum around the center.

Arushi Nath, a Grade 9 student from Toronto, said her family has been a member of the center since she was born, and going there on weekends “felt like coming home.”

“That’s where I learned that it’s okay for women and everyone to be passionate about science,” said Nath, who credits the center for fueling her curiosity.

The teenager began creating increasingly complex experiments over time and ended up taking the top prize at the Canada Science Fair in both 2022 and 2023 for her projects on detecting and asteroid deflection.

Closing the center, she said, is “robbing children of their scientific curiosity and childhood dreams.”

As a high school science teacher, Howard Buckstein may not take his own students on field trips to the center, but he said it plays an important role in science education.

“We know that sitting in the classroom with a book or a laptop just doesn’t do the job for too many kids, but the kind of science education that happens at the science center is ideal for neurodivergent kids who need to explore the world in the right way. them,” he said.

Closing the center is a huge loss for both science and architecture in Toronto, he said. “When a piece of our architectural history is lost, it cannot be replaced,” he said.

Buckstein also expressed concerns about plans for a new science centre, saying if the province was serious about building a good replacement, it would have done so before closing the original one.

The fate of the science center has also become a political issue, with opposition provincial legislators and local politicians joining Sunday’s rally. Both NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie urged the Progressive Conservative government to reverse its decision to move the center and instead repair the existing facility.

A business case published last year by the government found the current building faces $369 million in deferred and critical maintenance needs over the next 20 years.

The business case said moving the science center instead of renovating it could save the government about $250 million over 50 years. Much of that savings comes from the smaller size of the planned new facility, though officials say there will be more exhibit space.

The facility was the world’s first interactive science center when it opened in 1969, but years of limited capital investment have left it with several shortcomings.

The center’s new home, in a redeveloped Ontario Place on the waterfront, isn’t scheduled to open until 2028.

The province said alternative programs are being offered to limit the disruption caused by the center’s closure, and those with memberships will receive refunds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 23, 2024.

Paola Loriggio, Canadian Press