Premier Doug Ford broke ground on the new Ontario Science Centre at Ontario Place on Tuesday, formally launching construction of a roughly $1 billion replacement for the long-running Don Mills institution and committing to an opening date of 2029. Ford was joined at the site by infrastructure minister Kinga Surma and Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, in a rare joint appearance after months of political distance over Ontario Place planning.
The new science centre will be considerably smaller in footprint than its predecessor. Plans call for a single mainland building of roughly 240,000 square feet, alongside a renovated set of the original 1971 pods and a fully updated IMAX Cinesphere. The province estimates throughput at about 1.4 million visitors a year once open, modestly below the Don Mills site’s pre-pandemic peak.
Ford has tied the project to his broader redevelopment of Ontario Place, a strategy that has drawn sustained criticism over the inclusion of a large private-sector spa run by Therme. Several court actions challenging the spa lease are still pending. Tuesday’s ceremony focused entirely on the science-centre piece, with the premier saying “shovels are in the ground” — a deliberate effort to convert the project from a political controversy into a visible construction site.
The closure of the Don Mills site in June 2024, justified by the province on structural-engineering grounds, drew unusually intense backlash. Petitions calling for the original building’s reopening attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and the closure has been a recurring theme in local town-hall meetings since.
On Tuesday Ford did not address the closed site’s future, and the province has so far not committed to a use case for the Don Mills land. Two consultation reports commissioned by the city are due in July.
The premier’s political position has weakened in recent polling. A Liaison Strategies survey put his approval at 27 percent; Angus Reid had him at 31 percent and Abacus Data at 35 percent, with disapproval at 44 percent. Ontario Court of Appeal’s May 19 decision dismissed his government’s appeal seeking to block release of his cellphone records, adding to a sense of political pressure on the premier and his office.
Construction on the new science centre will be split across three contracts, with site preparation already complete and the main superstructure expected to begin in late summer. The province said the facility would remain financed entirely from existing capital allocations and would not require fresh borrowing.