Construction is set to begin this spring on a new Ontario Science Centre on Toronto's waterfront, at an estimated cost of just over $1 billion and a smaller footprint than the old facility.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday that the contract has been awarded to build the new science centre at Ontario Place, which the government says will be completed "as early as" 2029.
"I couldn't sleep last night," Ford said at a press conference.
"This is stunning. This is world class and when they first showed me the architectural designs, I was like, 'Wow, this is going to be world class. Everyone in the world will be talking about our Ontario Science Centre.'"
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The province abruptly closed the science centre at its old location in east Toronto in the summer of 2024, citing an engineering report that found deficiencies with the roof.
Critics have questioned that reasoning, given that the roof has survived record amounts of snowfall this winter.
The government was working to relocate the science centre to Ontario Place before it closed the old facility, and a business case for the relocation suggested moving the science centre could help temper criticism of the other main part of the Ontario Place revitalization, a controversial spa and waterpark from European company Therme.
The new science centre facilities are set to be about 400,000 square feet, including a 220,000-square-foot main building, with an additional large space in the basement for operations and loading, as well as science programming in the Ontario Place pods and IMAX experiences in the Cinesphere.
About 120,000 square feet will be direct exhibit space, said Tourism, Culture and Gaming Minister Stan Cho. The sprawling former facility is more than 500,000 square feet, which Cho said was inefficiently used. It had 100,000 square feet of permanent exhibit space with another 27,500 square feet for temporary exhibits.
Liberal critic Adil Shamji, whose riding is home to the former science centre site, said what Ford is proposing is a "shadow" of what served Ontarians for decades.
"(He) is hiding science education behind downtown traffic, and that ultimately will deliver less programming in a fraction of the space than the current science centre offers students," he said.
"It certainly is worrisome for the fact that it will make it more difficult for Ontarians, who are the ones who are footing the bill for this supposedly new science centre, it will make it more difficult for them to access it."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.
