An analysis of the state of the Ontario Science Centre found that building a new one at Ontario Place would save the government about $250 million over 50 years, compared to rebuilding it at the current east Toronto location.
Those savings are among the reasons cited in a business case presented today by Infrastructure Ontario that concludes moving the attraction to a redeveloped Ontario Place on Toronto's waterfront is the better option.
It says significant savings come from the planned science centre at Ontario Place being about half the size of the existing space.
The business case references years of limited capital investments in the current building and a lack of spending to modernize the exhibition spaces in detailing how the science centre got to this point.
The report says when it opened in 1969 it was the world's first interactive science centre, but has seen declining attendance over the past decade and is facing $369 million in deferred and critical maintenance needs over the next 20 years.
It says it would cost $1.3 billion over 50 years to restore the building and exhibits at the current science centre site and $1.05 billion to build a new science centre in a pavillion at Ontario Place as well as repurposing the pod and Cinesphere structures for science programming.