The same lightweight concrete roofing material blamed for safety risks at the Ontario Science Centre is used in hundreds of other aging public buildings across the province, yet officials haven't pointed to any others that have been ordered closed.Hundreds of flat-roofed public buildings in Ontario use the same lightweight concrete roofing material as the Ontario Science Centre, yet none of them have been ordered closed over safety risks.
An engineering report delivered last week to the province found a small percentage of the centre's RAAC roof panels have degraded to the extent that they're at high risk of collapse come winter. "I want to stress that all of the mitigations and monitoring that we've put in place for the Ontario Science Centre are also in place for those facilities, so there's already enhanced management of rainwater and moisture on roofs."In addition, about 8 per cent of Ontario's 4,800 schools have the material, but no school has been ordered closed as a result of RAAC safety concerns, said a Ministry of Education spokesperson.
In April 2023, Premier Doug Ford announced his government's plan to move the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place. The Ford government had promised to keep the Ontario Science Centre open in its current location until a new facility is built at Ontario Place, scheduled for 2028. Elsa Lam is editor-in-chief of Canadian Architecture magazine. She says the engineers’ report into the Ontario Science Centre roof does not call for a full closure of the facility.