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FuktYoBish

Pretty sad that residents will have to foot the bill for this. Conservatives don't know what they're doing when it comes to money.


legocastle77

Residents won’t be footing anything because the government doesn’t want to save it. Ford has his developer buddies to consider. This roof collapse has been a godsend for Ford. It allows him to close the Science Centre early while giving the government enough time to quietly cancel the deal to move it to Ontario Place. 


Born_Performance_267

Everyone needs to remember that at each new subway stop on the Ontario line the government has bought up the land that homes and business were on and are turning it over to Doug Ford's developer friends to build condos and offices. This is money laundering of public funds in my opinion. All this land will be worth a fortune because of the public transit we built.


stevesmittens

I doubt it's a coincidence that the Ontario line runs between two large "development opportunity" sites with Ontario in the name.


queenw_hipstur

Not just money laundering, it’s wanton corruption.


CitySeekerTron

The roof hasn't collapsed yet.


alexefi

Not with that attitude..


water2wine

Ford dressed as Wario jumping on the science center roof is cracking me up right now


G8kpr

Doug Ford is up there right now jumping up and down.


BIG_SCIENCE

Ford cares more about getting alcohol in corner stores. Its more important than All our public infrastructure, our education system, our healthcare system, the eglinton crosstown, etc


ceciliabee

Oh you're sick? You need healthcare? How about you pay out of pocket for private care, go buy a corner store beer, and go fuck yourself instead? -Doug Ford, probably


oceansidedrive

Its not that they dont know what they are doing. Its that they simply dont want to pay for it. He shutting it down on purpose. He'll have some excuse why he wont accept the money. He wants the land for his developer buddies


innexum

Oh they know very well what to do with money. Especially taking form you and giving it to friends part.


IlllIlllI

Conservatives _absolutely_ know what they're doing when it comes to money, it's just that what they want to do will always make your life worse. Don't assume they're incompetent, they're not. That just lets them off the hook.


SalientSazon

I'm okay with millionaires doing this.


TheCakeBoss

If only the government spent our taxes on maintaining our culturally beloved structures, then you would have almost every millionaire in Toronto contributing!


TryharderJB

I think Conservatives know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to money.


kat233x

lol honestly, we already pay tax at 20-50% of our income depends on the tax bracket!!! Government needs to be more efficient with spending TAX MONEY! The hell when individual tax payers have to pay TAX AND GET THE JOB DONE THEMSELVES. 


thebourbonoftruth

>we already pay tax at 20-50% of our income depends on the tax bracket The way this is phrased implies to me that you don't fully understand how tax brackets work. Unless you're making $250k+ a year, that 50% never enters the equation.


ceciliabee

"we" makes sense with a range


kat233x

Reading comprehension for you — We := individual tax payers in this country. Also what is the point of this comment.. do you not agree 20% tax is a lot of tax???? And with that amt of money, don’t you expect like more efficiency and transparency? In this case a better explanation of why the Ontario Science centre closed abruptly???


kat233x

Maybe you are one of those who pays 50% income tax AND don’t care abt how your TAX money is spent. But for me I’m poor and frugal okay? Every dollar I pay as tax is A BIG DEAL for me, I care a lot abt the Science Center so I’m determined to KNOW


para29

This is the normal for Conservatives lol.


Moddaboy

And liberals is worse at spending, lost the country been in debt in our entire history. Country took on short term loans when Covid hit and were paying 50 million this year in interest alone for that.


Annual_Plant5172

You do realise this is a discussion about provincial politics...


Moddaboy

Ok fine since your butt hurt your government wasting billions and billions right now federally let’s talk provincial since you need more proof that liberals spent way more. Previous liberal Ontario governments billions and billions wasted under mcquinty and Wynne get fucked lol not saying ford is perfect he’s far from it but previous premiers fucked up Ontario nice and good long before ford lol doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.


Annual_Plant5172

But McGuinty and Wynne are not in power right now. Doug Ford is, and he's wasting even more money than governments that preceded his. If he's not working on fixing whatever they broke, then that doesn't make him any better. Especially when he's easily the most openly corrupt Premier in this province's history. You're going on this weird rant with very little grasp of history, it seems.


Particular-Act-8911

In a thread where people are making blanket statements about an entire political leaning.


Born_Performance_267

Yes the Russian and Chinese propaganda engines have done a wonderful job in Canadian politics. Not to mention American MAGA that want to influence us too.


Annual_Plant5172

Political literacy in Canada has never been as bad as it is now.


Particular-Act-8911

It's a municipal subreddit, with a provincial government topic and with people making blanket statements about an entire political leaning. It's definitely fair game to talk about any of these levels of government, I'd also add you haven't really shown any political literacy understanding outside the norm here.


Annual_Plant5172

Ok 👍🏾


Particular-Act-8911

That's about the reply I expected.


Annual_Plant5172

Congratulations 


mistakes_were_made24

He's not going to take anyone up on their financial offers because he has to give the land to his developer buddies because he got caught trying to do corrupt deals for the greenbelt land and this is the tradeoff. He'd probably be in trouble if he didn't give them valuable land because he's a mobster.


rikayla

Links to related Twitter accounts of the two main people offering to pay for this summer's costs: - Adam McNamara: https://x.com/adammcnamara / former Shopify exec. - Sabina Vohra-Miller: https://x.com/SabiVM / medical exec, but also married to another former Shopify exec. Also a link to an engineering report shared by the Canadian Architect yesterday: https://www.canadianarchitect.com/ontario-science-centre-doesnt-require-full-closure-a-close-reading-of-the-engineers-report/ > A deep dive into the engineers' report suggests that the building’s key exhibition areas could continue to operate safely—even if the Ontario government chooses not to invest in any structural roof repairs by the fall.


ckje

The more insane part is it’s only 2.5% of the roof that’s the real concern.


whyarenttheserandom

I believe it's closer to 6% that requires immediate attention (before Oct 31), which is a tight timeline but definitely doable. But then Ford won't get to pad his pockets with those sweet developer bucks.


Joatboy

It's surely higher than that. The 2.5% that was highlighted was done only with visible inspections (like a home inspection). No deeper inspections (ultrasonic, FLIR, etc) was done.


Hrafn2

>Sabina Vohra-Miller Interesting! She's done some really good stuff on public education / communication of science and health info. I found her a good, reasonable source of info during covid - on Twitter, in other publications, and on the below site: https://healthydebate.ca/about/


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snoosh00

But when a solution to the physical problem is presented and then rejected, it makes the corruption more blatant. I hope Doug sees jailtime (as unlikely as that might seem)


ceciliabee

Throw the pig on a spit, feed the entire province.


nogutsnoglory98

Folks, folks, folks…I don’t give a damn about the common folk.


OBoile

No way. He can't enrich his buddies if the Science Centre doesn't get moved.


Oracle1729

I’ve got a refund for my membership coming that I’d happily donate to keeping the place open.  I have a feeling if every member did that it would be more than enough.  Which is interesting because the government is handing out the refunds rather than spending less to keep it open.  I’d love to see what the total closure is costing the taxpayer. 


Somhlth

Dougie accepts cash bribes in plain, unmarked envelopes given directly to him, his family members, or left on his premises. This isn't a cash bribe, as it has a well intended consequence that doesn't benefit Dougie.


nim_opet

I No because it’s never been about the money.


G8kpr

Well. Not the money to fix it. It’s about his kickback money he will get when his developer friend ls sink their teeth into it.


Annual_Plant5172

Has anyone heard from the CEO of the Science Centre or anyone on the board? It's like they just laid over and died instead of trying to push back on the government's plans, knowing what was at stake this summer and the amount of children and families that were going to lose out.


FriendFoxTail

The CEO is a government employee and the board is appointed by the government


Annual_Plant5172

Ah, I knew the CEO was but I didn't know about the board.


LogKit

The Board of Trustees, CEO, and Infrastructure Ontario recommended the closure.


LamSinton

No, because he’s already illegally promised that land to developers.


LumberjackBearMan

Doug Ford spent $1M to come up with a reason to close it.


crazyboy611285

Ford will take the 1mil, shove it in his own pocket, and then still sell the land off to the highest bidder (of his friends only).


G8kpr

Just a historical reminder that it was Mike Harris who closed the planetarium when he cut the ROM budget by $600k. It was one of the few planetariums actually turning a profit. We lost that for good. We will lose this for good too


alfienoakes

The roof story absolutely stinks. Pursued properly this could bring down a government.


Annual_Plant5172

If the pandemic couldn't bring down Ford then a building that most Ontario voters see as a Toronto problem will not be the tipping point.


NoMedicine9220

Ontario without Toronto is Manitoba.. Its a Ontario problem if Toronto Sinks


Annual_Plant5172

But the average person outside of Toronto doesn't see it that way and likely never will anyway. They'll just blame Trudeau and Wynne.


NoMedicine9220

Willful ignorance is so in Vogue lately, Trudeau broke my toaster, Wynne hate is just so yesterday.


HippityHoppityBoop

So you’re saying rich people *can* pay more to the public?


snoosh00

No one said they couldn't.


Midnight_heist

Nope. You'd have to pay him more than whatever the kick back will be from letting the developers have the land.


coralshroom

i think it’s time to bust in and carry out toronto’s version of maintenance art a la mirele laderman ukeles. (70’s conceptual/performance artist who work involved cleaning/fixing stuff.) i mean we already have some patrons.


Chucks_u_Farley

Slip that money in his back pocket and *maybe*


WhytePumpkin

The only way Dumbass Dougie considers this is if the $1mil ends up in his offshore bank account


not_likely_today

It does not matter. Someone can literally come in and say they will pay for everything to fix it up and he will still not allow it. This is a land grab for his buddies and a way to get it down at the harbor front to push his agenda.


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rikayla

Good bot. The Toronto Star does really good Black Friday / Boxing Day subscription sales. Also, the Digital News Subscription Tax Credit can help with the cost: https://dexteritas.ca/the-digital-news-subscription-tax-credit-supporting-canadian-journalism/


techm00

Really gross how private citizens are having to offer their money to fix a political failure. Really my heart goes out to them for their generosity, but they shouldn't have to do this. We need to get Doug Ford out.


Budget-Neck

this was not about the money


Rajio

maybe we should be taxing them more


a_lumberjack

[Betteridge's law strikes again](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines). Sadly $1M is a drop in the bucket. A million dollars only gets OSC to the point where it's not unsafe to use next winter, the full cost is $25M to replace the roof. On top of the 150M+ in deferred repairs from before 2017, plus repairing the bridge. Call it $200M minimum, but likely $300M with post-pandemic construction costs. If the headline was 100M it would be a very different question.


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a_lumberjack

Ma'am, this is a Wendy's. But seriously, I was just commenting on the headline question. Offering 0.3% of the needed money isn't going to change anything. 33% would force Ford's hand. Absent that this is just rich people being performative. We've been letting things crumble since I was a kid. It was the NDP that changed how OSC was funded, followed by a decades of neglect by both the Tories and Liberals, that got us to this point where we've let a major structure become unsafe. Everyone ignored the reports and let things slide. There's 10B+ in deferred maintenance for the City of Toronto alone (mostly the TTC). Line 3 had to close ahead of time because we let it rot. We've got a lot of aging infrastructure that need major overhauls, and when we *do* major overhauls it's chaos (Gardiner, Spadina streetcar) and everyone's furious. We need the parties to grow up and talk about where we are and agree that we need to address these things constructively.


CitySeekerTron

But what we really needed was an underground parking lot because what Therme needed was an underground parking lot.


Flanman1337

And beer in corner stores, 18 month's early! We also had $300 million to cancel a wind farm, only to start building it again 5 years later.


MatthewFabb

>A million dollars only gets OSC to the point where it's not unsafe to use next winter, the full cost is $25M to replace the roof. On top of the 150M+ in deferred repairs from before 2017, plus repairing the bridge. Call it $200M minimum, but likely $300M with post-pandemic construction costs. I don't have a Toronto Star subscription so I haven't read this article. However, Adam McNamara who wants to donate $522,500 just wants to keep the Ontario Science Center open this summer. He feels bad about all the kids who were supposed to attend camps there this summer and all the other kid programming that would happen summer long. There's a lot of people upset at Doug Ford & the PC government and what is happening to the Ontairo Science Center but they make up a lot of different groups. One group, just wants to keep it running until the next of the summer as the roof report doesn't say there is an immediate danger and that it should be safe until October 31, 2024 as the big concern is build up of snow. Another group wants to see the Ontario Science Centre up and running until the new one is ready. Then there's those who don't want the Ontario Science Centre to move at all. That's a lot more money to get it all fixed up and the backlog of stuff. Plus maybe some who fall in between these various groups (like let's pay for it to run 1 more calendar year and that's it).


snoosh00

I hate how we say "paying the backlog is a lot of money" when it's really "that free money ""we"" thought ""we"" were getting by not paying for OSC upkeep sure is getting expensive".


a_lumberjack

Keeping OSC fully open all summer isn't possible unless the plan is to do nothing and allow the roof to collapse later. The 522k (plus all of the related costs that aren't included in that figure per the report) was never a number to keep OSC open for the summer. That figure is for 3+ months of remediation work per building to do the bare minimum necessary to keep the roof from failing under heavy snow. That work was described as requiring construction closures that would have a severe impact on programming.


PythonEntusiast

Is it possible to set up a GoFundMe page for the repairs of the Ontario Science Centre? If the government won't repair it, then the people will. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.


Annual_Plant5172

It didn't matter of a fund is setup. The province would still have to sign off on it.


Followlost

Ford can’t accept this offer because it will indicate the governments inability to maintain a public building and that will erode confidence in those who wish to invest in our city. However; could it possible for Ford to somehow transfer the centre to a private entity, or a partnership with government, that was publicly funded?


RedEyedWiartonBoy

I'm offering $1.25 to buy a Jet Ski.


G8kpr

Where is the NDP and Liberals screaming about this. So far I haven’t seen or heard anything. This is blood in the water and it feels like they’re watching a sunset.


Sowhataboutthisthing

$1million that won’t even pay for the photocopying


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Crake_13

The OSC may not be relevant, but the blatant political corruption should be.


quarrystone

> Some of you really need to wake up and realize issues like the "Science Center" are not relevant or pressing for the vast majority of the population, no matter how many online tantrums you throw over this. Similarly, a lot of people who don't live in the Toronto-St. Paul riding feel like they had no influence in the decision and would have been unable to affect any component of what happened. At least with the OSC, we can still protest, sign petitions, and make our voice heard. The election in TSP was decided by voters; the closing of OSC is not relegated to just the one district. Couple this with the fact that a lot of people have nostalgic memories of OSC. Some of us had to look up exactly where Toronto-St. Paul covered to gauge any sort of importance. Calling it a tantrum when people are just expressing their care for the topic is bullshit. It's like trying to convince someone to think a certain way by punching them in the face. It comes across like your username is a warning as to who people are responding to. When there are more articles that break new news on the TSP district, post them. In the meantime, nothing is stopping you from tuning out things you don't like. There's room for more than one discussion at a time.


PRLake

Perhaps the existence of 20+ posts suggests that this issue is more relevant than you make it out to be?


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Annual_Plant5172

Yeah, who cares about an educational institution and a community hub that served thousands of people and two at risk neighborhoods.


rikayla

Be the change you want to see and make posts about that by-election then. Because as someone who actually went out to vote last night in that by-election, I've already come to terms with the result and have nothing to share about it.


red_keshik

Inferring a lot from Reddit posts,


lw5555

The delusion to think one speaks for the majority.


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lw5555

Yes, and the right's priorities are beer in gas stations.