Construction is expected to begin “in the coming weeks” as a consortium of companies begins building the new Ontario Science Centre, which Premier Doug Ford says will open in 2029.
That leaves two years and 10 months to get the job done on the Ontario Place waterfront off busy Lake Shore Boulevard, leaving skeptics to fear the date is science fiction in an era where big projects often come in late and over budget.
But Ford says he’s “confident” construction companies in the Ontario Science Partners consortium can meet the deadline, which just happens to dovetail with the next provincial election that must be held by 2030 at the latest.
“They’re going to go full steam,” he told reporters Thursday when queried about the date after unveiling architect’s renderings of the building.
Infrastructure Ontario said the consortium was given a $1.04 billion contract after being chosen in a competitive procurement process than began in May 2024 with “extensive evaluations” of proposed designs, technical submissions and prices.
“Ontario Science Partners will begin mobilizing on site and construction is expected to start in the coming weeks,” the agency said in a statement.
A quick look at timelines for major projects of the past provides some context.
Maple Leaf Gardens, the former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Carlton Street, was built in a little over five months in 1931, at the height of the Great Depression.
The more complicated SkyDome, now known as the Rogers Centre, took two years and eight months to construct before its opening in 1989, while it took three years and two months to build the neighbouring CN Tower, which opened 50 years ago this summer.
In 1999, the Scotiabank Arena, then known as the Air Canada Centre, opened 23 months after shovels were in the ground.
Three decades earlier, it took about five years to build the Raymond Moriyama-designed Ontario Science Centre, which was built into the ravines of Don Mills that created challenges during its construction.
Even Ontario Place, which opened in 1971, only took two years to build and that included creating three artificial islands using an estimated one million cubic metres of landfill from all over Toronto.
Veteran industry insiders, speaking confidentially because their organizations have government dealings and they weren’t authorized to comment publicly, say the construction timelines depend upon how much preparatory work has been done.
“In some respects, building the roof and walls can be quicker than the planning,” said one insider, noting it is difficult to get a line of sight into “where the Science Centre is on the planning stage.”
Another industry official confided that, in theory, the Science Centre could be completed within two years but only if all environmental approvals are in place and any engineering challenges are solved.
“It really doesn’t take that long to build a building if the planning process is done,” said the second source.
A third veteran of the construction industry said the waterfront site adds complications and pronounced Ford’s timeline “impossible,” in part because of environmental considerations.
“The amount of reinforcement they have to do on that coastline is a massive piece of work,” he said, raising concerns about fish habitats and the impact construction has on them — noting clouds of sediment in the water hamper reproduction.
“You’d have to exempt yourself from so many environmental regulations and general construction rules. That’s the only way to do it.”
In addition, the traffic on Lake Shore Boulevard — with morning and afternoon rush-hour gridlock — presents its own challenges, particularly during the Canadian National Exhibition in late summer, he added.
As well, construction of a Therme spa a few hundred metres to the west at Ontario Place will add to the congestion.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said Ford’s promises on the timelines and budgets of his megaprojects need to be taken with a large grain of salt.
“The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour,” said Fraser, pointing to delays and cost overruns on numerous initiatives since the Progressive Conservatives took office in 2018.
“Take a look at all of those projects, the (Eglinton) Crosstown and (unfinished) hospitals. In Ottawa, eight years later, I’ve got a six-storey parking garage and a hole in the ground … and the costs have gone up,” he said, referring the new campus at the Ottawa Hospital.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Ford’s entire Ontario Place scheme is “all a distraction from the things he’s really responsible for and that he’s not addressing” in health care, education, housing and the cost of living.
“He doesn’t have the solutions. He can’t fix these problems,” Stiles told reporters at Queen’s Park.
While the new Science Centre will be just 400,000 square feet compared to its predecessor’s 568,000 square feet, Ford insisted the new facility will actually have more space for exhibits and attractions because of its more straightforward layout.
Tourism Minister Stan Cho said the original Science Centre had an “incredibly inefficient use of space, large hallways, lots of office space, big pillars and barriers in the way. You had to go a long distance between exhibits … it just didn’t make sense.”
Designed by Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects, renderings of the new Science Centre show it clad in massive white panels that look like sails, an homage to Australia’s famed Sydney Opera House, and floor-to-ceiling windows for vistas over Lake Ontario.
Other members of the consortium include Amico Major Projects Inc., which is working on an elevated guideway and five above-ground stations for the Ontario Line subway and the Hazel McCallion LRT line in Mississauga, and Sacyr Infrastructure Canada Ltd. Its local work involves a fourth track on the Lakeshore East rail corridor and the Grandview Children’s Centre built in Ajax.
The new Science Centre is the cornerstone of the government’s controversial redevelopment of Ontario Place, which includes the spa and waterpark, an enlarged year-round concert venue where the Budweiser Stage is currently located, a 50-acre public park, beaches, event spaces, free trails, a playground and a one-acre splash fountain.
While Ford had already announced the Science Centre would be moved from Don Mills to Ontario Place — something a previous Liberal government had considered — it was abruptly shuttered in June 2024 after an engineering report found the roof was in danger of collapsing.
Despite that warning it might no longer be structurally sound, critics note that it is still standing even after two snowy winters.
Ontario Place, the provincially owned lakefront park opened in 1971 by Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis, was closed by Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty in 2012 because declining attendance led to massive financial losses.
To service the Science Centre and Ontario Place, last summer Ford announced a taxpayer-funded $400-million, five-storey parking structure towering over Lake Shore Boulevard that has been derided as the “garage Mahal.”
“It’s not a Taj Mahal parking lot. It’s a parking lot that we’re going to (garner) income. It’s going to be a massive asset,” the premier sniffed Thursday.
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