Premier trashes Science Centre

Ford says rundown infrastructure reason for attendance drop

Premier Doug Ford has cited a huge drop in attendance and “rundown” infrastructure at the Ontario Science Centre as part of his justification for moving the attraction from east Toronto to a redeveloped Ontario Place, but certain documents present a fuller picture.

Reports from the science centre itself show that attendance has been rebounding post-pandemic lockdowns, and small annual decreases in attendance in the years before COVID-19 are attributed to nearby construction of a provincial transit project and not having enough money for marketing.

The size of the Science Centre’s operating grant from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport appears to have been frozen for the past 10 years, based on government expenditure estimates. Minister Neil Lumsden’s office did not provide an explanation for not increasing the funding, but noted the attraction “benefits from other provincial supports” such as a capital repair and rehabilitation program.

Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma has said a business case showed it will be more cost effective to move the Science Centre to Ontario Place rather than keeping it in the current location, but has so far refused to make that business case public.

Ford has been citing a desire to modernize the facility and attract more people as reasons for the move, suggesting the centre is aging and fading from popularity.

“They’re in this old, rundown building (where) the attendance is down 40 per cent,” he said this week. “I can look around this room and ask how many people have gone to the Science Centre in the last, I don’t know, year, two years. One? I don’t see anyone.”

Those comments were uncalled for, said NDP infrastructure critic Jennifer French. “Since COVID, I know people are eager to get out and into their public spaces and give their kids something to do and the Science Centre has always been a favourite, so painting it in a negative light is kind of mean-spirited and unfounded,” she said.

Ford later clarified that the attendance drop was 30 per cent, and his office said that figure comes from comparing 2012-13 figures to 202223. The decrease, however, is about 10 per cent when comparing 201213 to 2018-19, the last year unaffected by the pandemic.

Coming out of most of the pandemic lockdowns, on-site attendance for 2021-22 was 255,347 — well exceeding the centre’s target of 142,078 for that year, according to its annual report for that year, the most recent one available.

Attendance on Family Day weekend and March break last year exceeded numbers for those dates in 2019 by seven per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

According to Science Centre annual reports, attendance went up and down between 2012-13 and 2016-17, when it was 941,006. It then declined by four per cent, then another two per cent to 884,837 in 2018-19, the last year unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions.

The annual reports blame the drops on “insufficient funds for marketing” and construction at nearby Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road, where the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been under construction for 10 years. It includes a “Science Centre” stop that would increase transit accessibility to the attraction. The 2017-18 business plan also notes global factors.

“Visitor attendance at science centres, natural history museums and art galleries has been on a decreasing trend to varying degrees in recent years,” it said.

Reports from the Ontario Science Centre itself show that attendance has been rebounding post-pandemic and small annual decreases in attendance in the years before COVID-19 are attributed to nearby construction of a transit project and not having enough money for marketing.