Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Kinga Surma
Estimated cost to Ontario
$500.0M
Ontario Minister of Infrastructure. On June 21, 2024, Surma announced the immediate closure of the Ontario Science Centre, attributing it to a Rimkus engineering report about distressed roof panels. FOI documents subsequently revealed that draft versions of the same Rimkus report from March, April, and May 2024 had recommended routine maintenance — not closure — and that Infrastructure Ontario was in "frequent communication" with Rimkus in the lead-up to the final report. The Auditor General had already found the original relocation decision was based on "preliminary and incomplete costing information."
Connected Scandals
Ford abruptly closed the Ontario Science Centre on June 21, 2024, citing a dangerous roof — but the engineers' own report did not recommend closure. The same roofing material exists in 400+ other Ontario buildings that remain open. The roof survived a major snowstorm intact. Ford refused to reopen it anyway. The Science Centre is now temporarily housed in a mall and at Harbourfront while a replacement is built at Ontario Place — a project whose cost has ballooned from $322 million to over $1 billion, with the new building 45% the size of the original.
Made the public announcement closing the Science Centre with two days' ministerial notice, citing an engineering report that earlier drafts had not used to justify closure. Global News reported Infrastructure Ontario coordinated extensively with the engineering firm before the final report was issued. The closure enabled the government to proceed with its plan to relocate the Science Centre to Ontario Place as part of the Therme redevelopment.
To prepare Ontario Place for a private Austrian spa, the Ford government rerouted a raw sewage overflow pipe into the West Channel of Lake Ontario — bypassing public consultation, exempting the project from environmental review, and proceeding over the objections of physicians, landscape architects, and 2,250 Ontarians who formally opposed the plan.
As Minister of Infrastructure, Surma oversaw Infrastructure Ontario's management of the Ontario Place redevelopment, including the construction of the combined sewer overflow reroute into the West Channel that began December 1, 2025. Infrastructure Ontario notified City of Toronto staff directly of the construction start.