{"id":4309,"date":"2014-09-19T09:42:29","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T14:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2014-09-30T10:04:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:04:21","slug":"science-and-tech-museum-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/?p=4309","title":{"rendered":"Science and Tech Museum Closes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sciencetech\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Update: The museum has announced that it will not be ready to reopen until January 2015.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We received news late last week that the Canadian Science and Technology Museum would be closed for an indefinite period because of airborne mould.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first concern was finding out what would happen to our members \u2013 ensuring that the employer would respect the collective agreement,\u201d explained National Executive Vice-President Kevin King.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut so far, we\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised. This employer has been doing a great job at ensuring that our members are being accommodated during this closure. It\u2019s also committed to meeting with the Local every two weeks to keep them in the loop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of these members have been relocated to other offices, where they can continue performing work for the museum. Museum guides, who can\u2019t perform their work while the museum is closed, are being kept home with pay.<\/p>\n

During a meeting with the Local on Monday, the employer stressed that it does not plan on laying-off anyone during this time.<\/p>\n

This latest health and safety hazard has put the spotlight on the museum\u2019s suffering infrastructure. There\u2019s $3.5M worth of maintenance work<\/a> to be done, including repairing a leaky roof and installing proper heating and ventilation units. There\u2019s also the issue of asbestos that was found in the roof back in October 2013.<\/p>\n

The employer told the Local on Monday that they are looking into replacing the roof, which would address both the mould and asbestos.<\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t stopped politicians from dreaming big. This gem of the national capital region has been housed in an old industrial bakery since 1967 \u2013 it was supposed to be a temporary location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a real need to have a more modern Science and Tech Museum in the high tech capital of Canada,\u201d Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told CFRA<\/a>. \u201cI’ve always thought that that museum should be down in the downtown core.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both the museum and the conservative government say<\/a> this isn\u2019t bound to happen anytime soon; there\u2019s no money for that kind of project right now, according to John Baird.<\/p>\n

In a brilliant op-ed<\/a> earlier this week, Emma Godmere perfectly captured how magical this museum is for anyone who graced its halls as a kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo anyone else, I was just another suburban Ottawa kid ambling around a museum on a quiet, admission-free evening. But what no one else could see was that I \u2014 along with hundreds, even thousands of unsuspecting students before and after me \u2014 was discovering a whole new dimension, one that computer screens and elementary school science classes could never quite reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godmere is one voice among many calling for a better home for this museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat pure, independent, curiosity-driven discovery that the Science and Technology Museum provides for a kid \u2014 especially a modern-day, Internet-burdened kid \u2014 is priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: The museum has announced that it will not be ready to reopen until January 2015.\u00a0 We received news late last week that the Canadian Science and Technology Museum would be closed for an indefinite period because of airborne mould. \u201cOur first concern was finding out what would happen to our members \u2013 ensuring that … <\/p>\n

>> “Science and Tech Museum Closes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4330,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}