The Ontario Science Centre is no more — at least as Ontarians have known it for the last 55 years.
On June 21, the provincial government closed the building, citing an engineering report that said small parts of the roof were unsafe and needed urgent repairs. The government chose to shut everything down rather than try to fix the problems and keep the institution open while a new science centre is built at Ontario Place. And while the province has promised a temporary science centre in the interim, it's expected to be just a fraction of the size of the recently closed facility.
Critics, however, haven't drawn the same conclusions from that report. The decision — like almost every move made during the years-long science centre saga — has garnered fierce opposition.
Lesley Lewis, who served as the centre's CEO from 1998 to 2014, and Kevin von Appen, who worked for the centre for almost 35 years, including as its director of science communication, join us to walk through the organization's history, slow-percolating troubles that doomed its facility, the current site's future, and its relocation.
