TORONTO — The Ontario Science Centre laid off 30 workers Thursday, including the entire science department, two years after Premier Doug Ford said no one at the attraction would be left jobless.CEO Paul Kortenaar told staff the organization is being restructured and is eliminating the live-exhibits and science department, business development and security, The Canadian Press reported. Kortenaar said he expects new roles later.The Ontario Public Service Employees Union local that represents Science Centre staff said the cuts take unionized employees from 166 to 136 — an 18% reduction — and wipe out more than 540 years of combined service. Local president Raluca Ellis asked how an Ontario Science Centre can operate with no science unit. The union said only one affected worker was offered another permanent public-service job..The province shut the Don Mills Rd. building in June 2024 after an engineering report flagged roof problems. Critics have noted the roof has since taken heavy snow and rain. Staff have run pop-ups at Sherway Gardens, Harbourfront Centre, the CNE and in schools while Queen’s Park builds a new centre at Ontario Place.Ford’s government has put that rebuild at about $1 billion and has said it should open by 2029. Auditor General Shelley Spence earlier found the Ontario Place science-centre cost had risen by nearly $400 million from the 2023 business case and that a new building could cost more than keeping the old site.After the 2024 closure, Ford said workers would not be left without jobs. Days later more than 50 food-service staff were cut, then 28 cleaners. At least 34 directly employed roles were not replaced. A February count put full-time staff at 185, down from 219 at shutdown, which the centre then attributed mainly to retirements and attrition. Thursday’s meeting is the first confirmed round that removes the science unit itself.The live-science staff are the people who ran demonstrations and school programs while the old building sat empty and the new one is still years away. Cutting them now, before Ontario Place opens, leaves a branded science centre without the department that made it a science centre — and leaves the 2024 job promise on the record against a 30-person layoff.
