The decision to move the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place was based on incomplete data and took into account the parking desires of a water park and personal spa, the province’s auditor general said Wednesday.
An annual report from the auditor general’s office today includes a look at the planned science centre relocation and found that a proposal earlier this year to government decision makers included mention of the province’s legal obligations to Therme, which is set to build a highly criticized facility at Ontario Place.
The government has disclosed the main points of the long-term lease agreement with Therme, but the auditor general said it requires them to provide a set number of committed parking spaces for the spa between 2028 and 2030 or face a monetary penalty.
“The bid proposed that the new parking lot be incorporated into the construction of the new Ontario Science Centre to address public and stakeholder considerations of charges and environmental impact,” the auditor’s report states.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said the province agreed with the city of Toronto to relocate the Ontario Place car park near Exhibition Place.
NDP leader Marit Stiles, an outspoken critic of the spa and the proposed waterfront underground parking lot beneath the new science center, said the auditor’s report shows the government presented the parking lot to Therme and then used an incomplete business case to justify it.
“This total allocation to move the science center was obviously invented to legitimize the prime minister’s plan to build this luxury spa,” he said. “Why is he so indebted to Therme?
Liberal critic Adil Shamji, who represents the east side of Toronto that currently houses the science centre, said the business case for moving the science centre “only makes sense” if plans are made for new construction that is part of the length of the existing and vital information.
“It’s a distraction that serves a higher goal for (Premier) Doug Ford, which is to allow him to continue his personal and shady dealings with developers, and in particular with a personal spa company, and the Ontario Science Center “He’s a pawn in all of this,” he said.
An Infrastructure Ontario business case for the science centre found that moving it instead of retrofitting existing facilities could save the government about $250 million over 50 years, however, Acting Auditor General Nick Stavropoulos found that key data was missing.
According to him, prices for additional parking, financial, transactional and legal prices for a new science center, and prices for maintenance and modernization of existing facilities are not included.
“The province’s science centres (including Science North in Sudbury) are both facing their own challenges,” Stavropoulos wrote in a statement.
“But decision makers were not fully informed when planning for the future of the Ontario Science Centre — this is critically important for all decisions going forward.”
Surma stated that the prices excluded in the “move” option were also excluded for the “stay” option.
“That being said, we have our business case from 2023 that clearly defines that it’s less expensive to build a new facility and less expensive to operate it over a 50-year term,” she said.
A similar business case presented in 2016, with offshoring as one of the options, reached the same conclusion about cost savings, the auditor said, but no action was taken.
A likely increase in tourists attending the science centre at Ontario Place was included in the April proposal to government, the auditor said, but a likely negative impact on attendance from residents and school groups was not included.
The government also failed to consult with many groups affected by the decision, including school boards, the auditor said. School groups account for 25 percent of visits to the science center.
The auditor surveyed 300 science teachers from 53 school forums and found that nearly a portion said they would be less likely to take classes at an Ontario Place science center because of differences in distance and transportation.
The science centre proposed a 353,000-square-foot facility in September 2022 for Ontario Place at an estimated cost of $610 million, the auditor said, but the government asked for a smaller facility to be explored. The new facility is now expected to span approximately 275,000 square feet and will not include a planetarium or immersive rainforest exhibit.
Government officials have said that while the proposed new science center construction would be about the same length as the existing one, it would use the area more successfully and have more exhibition area.
The auditor’s report said the new building would actually have about 18 per cent less space for exhibits.
The construction of the existing science center faces critical and deferred maintenance needs of $369 million over the next 20 years, depending on the business case. An April 2022 building condition report uncovered “multiple critical deficiencies” in the ceiling, wall, mechanical, electrical and elevator systems. , interior finishes, chimney and life protection equipment and equipment.
A lack of government funding is a key cause of that, the auditor said.
There have been 42 projects deemed “critical” since 2017 that have not been repaired, and of those projects, the science center had implemented for investment in seven of them at least three times in the past five years, but it was rejected each time, the auditor wrote.
In addition, the science center’s planetarium has been closed to the public since September 2022 due to “ongoing primary maintenance and ongoing technical issues with apparatus that has reached the end of its useful life,” the auditor wrote.
Infrastructure Ontario also ordered the science center in June 2022 to close a pedestrian bridge connecting the main front to the exhibition halls after the bridge was deemed unsafe.
The case says $16 million would be charged to fix the bridge, but there is no timeline for that.
The science center has set up a round-trip service that transports visitors from the parking lot to the back entrance, which the auditor’s report says costs $2. 4 million a year and “has negatively impacted the guest experience. “
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