Sign the petition to keep the #Ontario Science at its current location.
“In short, they are expecting that 50% more people will visit a facility that is 45% of the size of the current Science Centre, with a significantly reduced staff managing it all.”
It will cost taxpayer $300-$400 million more.
And can you imagine 30 school busses with hundreds of #kids navigating heavy downtown traffic every single day?
(My personal thoughts: Yes, the current building needs extensive repair. Perhaps a solution would be to rebuild part of the building, but integrate important architectural features from the original? Put all the parking underground, and that leaves space to build both a community centre and housing on the rest of the property).
**Sign the letter to the premier at: PETITION: savesciencecentre.com
"The saddest thing about this whole #OntarioPlace debacle is one day (hopefully soon), #DougFord will be gone. Out of office, out of the picture, likely disgraced.
But we’ll still be stuck with this giant blob on the waterfront. Quite likely for multiple generations. A monument to corruption."
Doug Ford is letting the Ontario Science Centre rot. So transparently refusing the needed funding. It’s so depressing.
More displays & interactive exhibits are broken or removed every time we go. There’s a structural issue near the entrance that needs a fix, but instead they drive polluting shuttle buses up & down the hill every 5 minutes, 7 days a week, bringing patrons in the back door.
Here are some beautiful things hidden deep inside the Science Centre that you may not have seen before:
An actual rainforest, with suspension bridge and waterfall, inside the Ontario Science Centre.
Go see it if you haven’t. Because Doug is going to tear it down soon, and the new Science™️ (brought to you by Pepsi®️ and Doug’s Friends Developments®️) won’t be as cool.
How underfunded is the Science Centre? They took an exhibit from 1996 out of storage to fill an area because so many exhibits are broken. It’s filled with ancient grainy video, and several interactive components in it are also broken and screwed shut.
#Bill23 is a BEAST; complex & powerful legislation that will change #Ontario.
#DougFord's $8B #Greenbelt swindle is top news, but the bill also severely limits provincial conservation authorities ability to protect our watersheds, species, ravines, shorelines & parks.
Cityscapes as well - the largest authority, TRCA, revealed Ford did NOT consult with them on his decision to move the #ScienceCentre to #Toronto's waterfront despite TRCA OWNING the land the Centre currently sits on. #onpoli
🤔
Interesting that Housing Minister Steve Clark's chief of staff Ryan Amato, who was cited in today's scathing #greenbelt report, was until a year ago the 'Director of Stakeholder Relations' in the Transportation Ministry of MPP Caroline Mulroney.
Save the #ScienceCentre from demolition by voting it "Ontario's Best Indoor Attraction".
Send a strong message to the Ontario #Conservative government that you treasure the full sized Science Centre that Doug Ford wants to demolish and diminish.
Interestingly this poll to designate the Best #Ontario Indoor Attraction and possibly save the #ScienceCentre is actually a FEDERAL initiative funded by the Federal Economic Agency for Southern Ontario under the purview of MP Filomena Tassi.
'...there's something pretty obscene about building an indoor pool right on a beach'
'My favourite part, “Therme is spending roughly $200M on shoreline and environmental remediation”, without mentioning that the public will spend twice that on a parking lot to subsidize #Therme's business, and that the #ScienceCentre will move to justify the parking lot.'
Doug Ford's #greenbelt-bulldozing' Bill23 also severely limits Ont. conservation authorities ability to protect watersheds, species, ravines, shorelines, & parks.
Cityscapes as well - #Ontario’s largest conservation authority, TRCA, revealed that the province did NOT consult with them on the decision to move the #ScienceCentre to TO's waterfront despite TRCA owning the land the Centre currently sits on.
#Bill23 is a beast. Complex & powerful legislation that will change Ontario. #onpoli
"All the over 800 beautiful, mature trees that have grown on our shore for half a century will be destroyed by #DougFord to serve an Austrian developer's energy-sucking creation of a private playpen for the rich. We have to win this fight and stop this indefensible destruction."
Doug Ford "fiscal conservatism: taking something valuable that already exists, closing it, and rebuilding a lesser version of it at huge cost, to justify the case for another huge public expenditure on a parking garage, all to allow a public park to be given away to a private spa developer."
Doug Ford's Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma quietly introduced #Bill69 to enhance fiscal management, cut red tape, and waive the 30-day wait period between environmental assessments & construction starts.
👉 Very concerning that Bill 69 also gives MPP Surma total authority over provincial real estate that was previously controlled by 8 other ministries, allowing her to oversee & solely manage all these properties.
I still can’t get over them announcing a 17 billion dollar subway to the science centre, terminating at Science Centre station. Then moving the Science Centre all the way to the other end of the line. And they expect us to believe that was their carefully considered plan all along.
"Fiscal conservatism is taking something valuable that already exists, closing it, and rebuilding a lesser version of it at huge cost, to justify the case for another huge public expenditure on a parking garage, all to allow a public waterfront park to be given away to a private spa developer."
#Ontario Minister of Infrastructure, Kinga Surma, with Jill Dempsey on CBC Metro Morning.
Dempsey: What was the cost to repair the building at the Ont. #ScienceCentre?
Surma: The cost was higher. It was much more expensive..
Dempsey: But, what was the cost specifically?
Surma: Well, the government is doing due diligence..
Dempsey: But, when will that information be shared?
Surma: We will share it when the numbers are verified..
Ford #Conservative govt: Demolish first. Answer questions later..
Toronto’s $15 million mayoral election was triggered when this duplicitous prat resigned only 3 months! following last Fall’s election after admitting to a years long affair with a young staffer. Now he’s back advising and campaigning with his former deputy and now mayoral candidate Ana Bailao. If you're ok with the status quo and Fordian backroom deals..she’s your ticket. #voteto#topoli#austerityTO#15MillionDollarElection#dofo#onpoli#conservatives#toronto#ScienceCentre
When John Snobelen, the Minister of Education during the Mike Harris years, was caught on tape saying he wanted to create a crisis in education to then break it, it cost the #Conservatives the government.
Years later, rather than create stability, the lesson the Doug Ford government has learned is - do not say your plans out loud.
Conservatives know that if voters actually knew their plan, they would never be elected.
Doug Ford lied about a huge drop in Ontario Science Centre attendance as part of his justification for moving the attraction from east Toronto to a redeveloped Ontario Place. Reports from the #ScienceCentre itself show that attendance has actually rebounded since the pandemic lockdowns.
"Others have already pointed this out, but the Science Centre really is a textbook case of a #Conservative govt intentionally breaking something so they can point and say “look, this thing sucks!"
@chu@DanFox That story is a pretty comprehensive condemnation of Ford and his cabinet cronies as they bluff and and bully their way through the destruction of this provincial treasure.
Doug Ford & Ana Bailão’s big plan — demolish the Ontario Science Centre and build a small new science museum at Ontario Place, concocted as a way to distract from the private spa company given the entire West Island for 95 years (!) — is even more fake than I realized.
Nothing new can be built in the ravine. The only place to build is the parking lots, which are owned by the City of Toronto, which already has plans for housing there!
And that little bit of green on the edge of the property beside Eglinton Ave has already been purchased by the Condrain Group, which is controlled by the De Gasperis family who were guests at a recent Ford wedding.
#Bill60 brings us closer to a US-style private healthcare system. It allows private investors & shareholders to make millions off healthcare while this govt purposely starves our public not-for-profit healthcare system to justify #privatization.
Ford's for-profit private clinics will operate with far less public accountability, scrutiny, oversight & fewer rules, conflict-of-interest, or public & financial accountability.
👉 OHIPCard vs CreditCard #onpoli#Ontario#dofo
#Bill23 is the biggest affront to #Ontario towns and cities in 125 years.
Doug Ford's far-reaching and destructive bill takes a sledgehammer to the #environment, #greenbelt zones, conservation areas, #heritage & cultural buildings, (including Ont. Science Centre) and slashes long-standing municipal funding, planning & protection powers.
Jean Yoon’s full 🐦🧵: 1/ Ontario, crime is up. Not that crime. A massive scheme to steal our public resources, our Greenbelt, Ontario Place, Ontario Science Centre. Our healthcare is being smashed up, sold for parts to for-profit middlemen. The entire province is an active crime scene. We're being robbed