Almost two months have passed since the Ontario Science Centre's longest-serving CEO and a longtime director of the agency wrote Premier Doug Ford expressing their concerns about his government’s plans to relocate the once state-of-the-art museum and all they’ve heard is crickets.
The silence in response to their letter suggesting alternatives to up and move the Ontario Science Centre was telling to Lesley Lewis, its CEO from 1998 to 2014, and Kevin Von Appen, who spent almost 35 years with the organization and was up until 2021 its director of science communication.
“In our experience, it is only the most abusive of public letters that are dismissed out of hand,” Lewis told The Trillium.
"What we're seeking is a genuine and open public debate,” Von Appen said.
The pair reached out to Ford directly in September after a few months had passed and the Progressive Conservative government hadn't released the "business case" that the premier and Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said justified the science centre's move to Ontario Place.
The government announced the relocation on April 18, when Surma said a “business case analysis” found building “a new home” for the science centre would be more cost-effective than repairing the 1969-opened facility on Don Mills Road in Toronto designed by legendary Canadian architect Ray Moriyama.
After Surma resisted pressure to release the business case for a few days, Ford, on April 25, told reporters he’d be “open” to making it public.
Lewis, Von Appen, former Ontario Science Centre chair Nancy Lockhart, and its former vice-president of visitor experience Jennifer Martin argued in an op-ed published by the Globe and Mail two days later that the government’s plan was “bad science” and “bad policy.”
Five months passed without its release (the government has still not published the business case) before Lewis and Von Appen emailed Ford and Surma their co-signed letter on Sept. 26.
“We’re reaching out to you directly to share the substance of our concerns and propose a positive way forward,” they wrote.
In their letter, Lewis and Von Appen go on to tout the current Ontario Science Centre facility's “iconic” design that “transcended old models of traditional museums,” the success of the museum, and its influence over science centres built since.
They also compare former premier John Robarts' government's location choice — "in the geographic centre of Toronto," where transit was being built to reach and developments nearby were expected — to the current circumstances of having it nearby stops for the in-progress Eglinton LRT and Ontario Line.
Also in their letter, Lewis and Von Appen warn Ford against how an envisioned smaller-sized science centre could lose some of the lustre that's built-in to the existing facility.
“It’s impossible to see how the new (science) centre could accommodate the current centre’s on-site research, design and fabrication shops that create unique experiences and which are renowned globally,” they wrote.
Lewis and Von Appen’s letter wraps up by urging Ford to reconsider relocating the Ontario Science Centre in favour of funding necessary maintenance at its current site, while also suggesting ways Ontario Place could facilitate a “smaller and more tightly-focused satellite of the (existing Ontario) Science Centre.”
Ford’s office didn’t respond to questions sent in an email to it about Lewis’ and Von Appen’s letter before this story was published.
“Frankly, it never occurred to us that we would not receive any response,” Lewis told The Trillium.
“The provincial government owes it to the people of Ontario to make their case with facts and figures that support their proposal to demolish and move the centre,” Von Appen said regarding the government's lack of engagement.
The Ford government’s planned relocation of the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place is the most recent major adjustment it’s made to its waterfront refresh plan, which has experienced a few significant twists.
On June 30, 2021, Ford’s provincial government announced its initially planned redevelopment partners: multinational spa-builder Therme, Quebec-based Écorécréo, and Live Nation, the longtime leaseholder at Budweiser Stage, an amphitheatre.
Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Limited, a company run by members of the billionaire Tanenbaum family, was one of the redevelopment project’s bidders that the Ford government considered but ultimately passed up. In a presentation, dated March 2019, it pitched moving the science centre to Ontario Place.
Écorécréo backed out in summer 2022 after it and the government failed to agree to the terms of a long-term lease.
The intended addition of a taxpayer-funded underground parking garage — which was added at certain unspecified bidders’ requests while the government considered submissions — became public late last year.
The government's plan to relocate the Ontario Science Centre has been controversial by itself and as part of the larger Ontario Place redevelopment. It's still unclear what's to come of the Don Mills Road facility.
Other new hurdles for the Ontario Place redevelopment have popped up in recent weeks.
Ontario’s auditor general is conducting a value-for-money audit of the project, as Global News first reported on Nov. 3. The provincial auditor's office has also been working on an audit involving the Ontario Science Centre.
This Monday, the Toronto Star reported that landscape architect Walter Kehm, known for designing Ontario Place’s Trillium Park and the nearby waterfront Tommy Thompson Park, walked away from the redevelopment.
On Tuesday, Ontario Place For All, an advocacy group opposing the government’s deal with Therme that’ll see it build a spa and waterpark on the site, announced it’s applied for a Superior Court injunction that could at least temporarily pump the brakes on the redevelopment.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated how long Kevin Von Appen worked for the Ontario Science Centre.
