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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he wants to ensure the some 400 people employed at the current Ontario Science Centre will continue to have jobs at the new site at Ontario Place, despite the smaller space.
Ford made the comments during an unrelated press conference in Scarborough on Thursday.
The premier said he thinks “the world of the people” that work at the current Ontario Science Centre, but said the facility has seen a significant drop in visitors.
“To the great employees there — do you know what happens in the private sector when your sales are down 30 per cent and we see a decline every single year from 30 to 40 and its going to keep going? We don’t need as many people,” Ford said. “I want to make sure all 400 people there are going to be employed.”
Ford’s comments come a day after the union representing Ontario Science Centre staff said workers are “angry and confused” by the province’s plan to move the attraction to Ontario Place.
“Some 400 workers at the Ontario Science Centre, represented by (the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union) are angry and confused by the Ford government’s plans to move the educational attraction to the Ontario Place grounds in downtown Toronto,” the union wrote in a statement to The Canadian Press.
“There are no discernible benefits and many disadvantages to moving from the current spacious location in Don Mills to a congested site downtown,” the statement read.
The union also said staff are concerned about the impact the move will have on their lives, including the possibility of job losses.
“The long and much more inaccessible commute to the new location would make it much more difficult to get to what many staff describe as their dream job — working in the place they remember visiting with their families and school educational trips while growing up.”
OPSEU also said workers are concerned the new site could mean a smaller, more crowded space which could reduce exhibit capacity and lead to layoffs.
Earlier this month, the Ford government announced the science centre would be moving to Ontario Place, with construction set to begin in 2025.
During the announcement, Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Neil Lumsden confirmed the new space would not be as large as the current facility.
Many of the exhibits at the existing site will be moved to Ontario Place, Lumsden said, but that there will be new attractions with “greater efficiencies.”
Moving the science centre is part of a larger plan to reimagine Ontario Place as a tourist destination.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Ford said his government wants to ensure that the new Ontario Science Centre site is a “state-of-the-art facility and destination” that draws more tourists and school groups.
“You go by the Ontario Science Centre and inside it’s run down, Ford said, adding that only 25 per cent of the current space is being used.
The Ford government has said it determined it is more cost effective to relocate the science centre to Ontario Place, than to renovate the existing site.
Ford has said his government is looking into creating affordable housing at the current site of the science centre in North York.
-with files from The Canadian Press
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