‘The biggest betrayal’: A year on, staff grieve Ontario Science Centre’s snap closure

Markings for construction crews are seen at Ontario Place in Toronto on Friday, November 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — In the year since the abrupt closure of the Ontario Science Centre, the cost of a new site at Ontario Place has escalated, its opening date has been pushed back, there is no sign of a temporary location – and the old building’s roof that was said to be at risk of collapse appears to be intact.

Workers say they’ve dealt with a rodent and raccoon infestation at a building where science centre materials are stored, and the department that builds exhibits is at a virtual standstill. It’s been a year of demoralizing changes, they say.

Government officials announced midday on June 21, 2024, that the science centre at its original, east Toronto location would permanently close at the end of the day, citing an engineering report on the state of the building’s roof.

Critics have blasted the decision, noting that the report presented several options other than full closure, and have suggested the whole plan to move the science centre to a revamped Ontario Place was designed to lessen the heat a more controversial tenant — a waterpark and spa by European company Therme — has generated.

Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma has said she did not want to jeopardize anyone’s safety with the science centre’s roof panels at risk of collapse.

The workers do not buy it.

Toronto set a weather record in 2024 with 1,145 millimetres of precipitation, which included two “once-in-a-century” storms that flooded thousands of homes last summer and the city’s snowiest winter in years.

“And the science centre is still standing,” said Raluca Ellis, the president of Local 549 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

“It just seems like it was a manufactured crisis and that’s the biggest betrayal.”

NDP infrastructure critic Jennifer French also takes issue with stated reason for the closure.

“The roof managed to get through winter snow loads and a lot of rain this spring, and the only thing falling apart is the government’s plan for a new science centre,” she said.

The opening of the science centre at Ontario Place has already been pushed back from 2028 to 2029. A report from the auditor general late last year found that the cost estimate for building and maintaining the new science centre has increased by nearly $400 million from the government’s spring 2023 business case for relocating it.

Meanwhile, the government has said it will look for a space to house a temporary science centre until the new one opens. A request for proposals seeking a temporary location was released just days after the abrupt closure. It said the government was working “expeditiously” to find an interim site and wanted it to open no later than Jan. 1, 2026.

No such location has yet been announced, nearly one year later.

Jason Ash, of the group Save Ontario’s Science Centre, said it is a shame children are missing out.

“The bottom line, one year out from the closure of the science centre on Don Mills Road, is that a generation of Ontario kids and youth are without a world-class institution to learn about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education,” he said.

“Regardless of any of the other aspects that enter into the story ... it’s a real failure of the government’s educational policy to have let down so many children.”

The science centre is currently operating two pop-up exhibits at Harbourfront Centre and the CF Sherway Gardens mall in Toronto, and has had staff and small exhibits at various events around the city.

The Ministry of Infrastructure said in a statement that it is working with the science centre to “consider options” for a temporary location. As for the old building, the ministry said Infrastructure Ontario is managing it.

“IO has undertaken preventative measures to maintain integrity of the structure and roof since the facility was closed last year,” the ministry wrote.

“This includes managing snow load in the winter and rainwater and, mechanical repairs and system maintenance to ensure minimal heating and cooling levels.”

As workers moved everything out of the old building last fall, one of the new storage locations presented a number of problems.

All of the science centre’s education materials were moved to a building by Highway 401 in Etobicoke. The building on Resources Road, which has become the science centre’s official mailing address, is used as a warehouse of sorts where workers can gather experiments and small exhibits and other goodies for their visits to classrooms.

That building had been vacant for more than a decade.

Problems began immediately, said four employees with knowledge of what’s been happening there. They asked not to be named for fear of repercussion.

They said workers discovered mouse, and possibly rat, excrement throughout the basement and on the second floor of the building. And there were also signs of a raccoon infestation, they said. The workers found droppings and little hand prints that suggested a raccoon, or a family of raccoons, was living in the building.

The building’s manager laid out “a ton” of rodent traps and one large raccoon trap after workers complained to science centre management, the sources said.

There was no running water for a time, with very few power outlets and reams of extension cord snaking throughout the area, they added. Workers also discovered asbestos in the building.

“The entire ordeal moving to Resources Road has been very frustrating,” said one worker.

“The topper was the mouse and raccoon s--t.”

The infestation was eventually fixed, the sources said, though it took months.

The science centre declined requests for interviews with management, saying no one was available. It referred questions about the problems with the building to Infrastructure Ontario. The Ministry of Infrastructure statement said all pest control and maintenance issues were addressed promptly.

“Given the urgent requirement to find storage suitable for the Science Centre exhibits, artifacts and items in an extremely tight timeline, 101 Resources Road was identified as an available government-owned storage,” the ministry wrote.

“OSC continues to optimize operations, ensuring working conditions consistently meet all health and safety requirements.”

The local union declined to discuss problems at the building.

Ontario Science Centre CEO Paul Kortenaar pointed to ongoing pop-ups, special events and satellite locations for children to enjoy.

“Planning is underway for our new home at Ontario Place, with a competitive design process for our new flagship location on Toronto’s waterfront,” Kortenaar said in a statement.

Management is working on a 10-year master plan for the new science centre, he wrote.

“This work reflects our broader vision: we are reimagining what a science centre can be — not only a building, but a dynamic, provincewide platform for learning, discovery and connection.”

The connection between management and workers has frayed since the closure.

Working from home is not in the employees’ DNA, said Ellis, the Local 549 president.

“We are not working in ideal conditions and many ask why we put up with this and the answer is because we love the science centre, but ever since we were shut down, we’ve lost that essence of what the science centre is,” she said.

More than 20 union members have taken buyout packages over the past year, Ellis said, most due to the sudden change in job conditions.

And the hope that workers could reunite in person at a new interim location was recently dashed.

“They told me the timeline for the interim location has been changed, that the process has paused and we don’t know what the new timeline is,” Ellis said.

For union steward Martin Fischer, who works in the education department, the loss of the original building has been “heartbreaking.”

“It’s been extremely difficult,” said Fischer, who describes himself and many colleagues as neurodivergent.

“I’m somebody who needs a physical workplace, I thrived in the environment at the science centre, being with classes a few hours a day, it could be kindergarten, it could be a high school class, it’d be adult and then I’d maybe go talk to the shops to help design and build stuff for the school program, but that’s all gone now,” he said.

He still goes to schools for presentations, but he also spends a lot of time at home in front of his computer.

“It’s just not the same,” he said.

Melis Tokgoz, vice president of the local union and an exhibit designer at the science centre, said she too has struggled since the closure.

With the fabrication shop shuttered, there are far fewer designs to make, limited largely to the pop-up spots, she said. The science centre is looking at a few spots to restart designing and making exhibits for other science centres, but that work has largely stopped, Tokgoz said.

“We keep getting these reassurances that one day we’ll be back in the business of designing exhibits, but again, it is really hard to build that trust when you have no evidence otherwise,” she said.

That joie de vivre among employees is missing, she said. “There’s this sense of grief amongst many employees, missing what their jobs once were, missing the fulfilment, and I’m no different.”

“The energy has been sad and melancholic and a bit depressing the whole time.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025.

Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press