Without visitors breathing life into the Ontario Science Centre every day, the building no longer feels the same for its staff, a union representative and employee for over two decades said.
“It is hard for it to be so quiet as we walk through the halls,” said Walter Stoddard, a researcher and programmer at the science centre and the chief steward of the centre’s staff union, Local 549, in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Friday.
The centre’s workers are scrambling as they search for ways to continue serving the public amidst the centre’s abrupt closure, he said. Staff are still working inside the building, despite the province shuttering the centre to the public on June 21.
The government has said engineering reports showed parts of the roof could give way to snow in the winter and were at risk of collapse.
“Our understanding is that [the building] is perfectly safe right now,” said Stoddard. The government has said the high risk roof panels will be safe until Oct. 31.
Staff not immediately informed of closure: union steward
At present, staff are working in exhibit development, researching and creating exhibits that are sold all over the word, he said.
Ontario’s Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma defended on Monday the province’s decision to abruptly close the Ontario Science Centre last week. Surma says the centre’s board of directors decided to close the building shortly after the province reviewed an engineering report that identified issues with a number of roof panels. As CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp reports, the opposition is questioning whether the closure was necessary.
A day before the shutdown was announced, he said workers began noticing that fencing was being put up. On June 21, staff drove into work to see the entire centre was being enclosed with fences.
The story of the closure broke in the media at 12 p.m., but staff were only directly informed at 2 p.m. about what was happening, Stoddard said.
“It was quite heart wrenching to hear in the news … what was happening before we knew,” he said.
On the day the closure was announced, staff were told there would be no immediate job loss, Stoddard said. But three days later, more than 50 food service workers were given layoff notices.
Since then, he said staff haven’t heard anything else about potential further job losses.
“There’s encouraging words, but after the first set of encouraging words we’re not sure until we actually see those assurances,” Stoddard said.
After the shutdown, there has been an outpouring of support to keep the centre open from across the province. Stoddard said that public support “means the world” to workers.
“There’s been … a lot of people that we’ve had the chance to talk to and share … our shock, the pain of it, to come into work and see that the fences have gone up before we know why,” Stoddard said.
“It created a sensation, this feeling that we’re putting property before people,” he said.
In his early years at the centre, Stoddard said he presented an electricity show. He recalled speaking to a father whose two young children had watched his show so many times that they were able to recite it from memory as they drove home from the centre.
“The fact that we’re able to have that kind of relationship with the people of Ontario and those that may visit from elsewhere is extraordinary,” Stoddard said. “It’s been quite the shock to suddenly bring that to a stop.”