Two years after the province announced the Ontario Science Centre’s closure, two city councillors are acknowledging the ship has sailed on seeing it return to its original location and say they want the province should hand over the keys to the city so local community groups can put it to use.

Once crawling with curious children and tourists, the only action visible at sprawling campus next to Don Mills Road is for Ontario Line construction.

But Couns. Jon Burnside and Josh Matlow have a motion before council which hopes to breathe new life into the vacant buildings.

They’re requesting the Ontario government, which owns the building, transfer ownership to the city which co-owns the land it sits on.

“We’re looking at ways that we can actually make good use of not only the building, but the property that’s in such a good location,” said Burnside, who represents Don Valley East where the former attraction sits.

Burnside noted both Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park, which neighbour the buildings, could benefit from the community space — not to mention a nearby school.

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“The school down the street, Marc Garneau, they’re putting in their 13th portable, it’s bursting at the seams,” he said. “So one of the ideas is to move the school up to the Science Centre to use a portion of it for the school itself.”

The motion, which will be presented at city council’s final meeting of the term starting Wednesday, said the worst-case scenarios the province cited for abandoning the facility never happened. It said two winters with record snowfalls didn’t result in the roof caving in, as provincial officials warned could be a possibility.

Brian Rudy, an architect with Moriyama Teshima Architects which originally designed the iconic buildings more than 50 years ago, said the idea makes sense. It would cost both time and money, he acknowledged, but a new life is possible.

“It’s a very large and complex building, but it does lend itself to multiple different uses and a phased occupancy,” said Rudy.

“In fact that’s one of the things we are suggesting in our preliminary investigation.”

But Rudy also said it was important for the province to let an inspection occur to figure out what needs to happen before it’s allowed to degrade even further.

He also said the philanthropic offers to help pay for the facility’s repairs, like those that came during the announcement of the closure, would likely materialize again.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow seconded the need for outside investment if the the province did in fact transfer ownership.

“Are you kidding me? We don’t mind helping out; we absolutely don’t have the capital funds to fix the Ontario Science Centre,” Chow said when asked if the city could pay for repairs.

A provincial spokesperson would only say discussions with the City of Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority remain ongoing when asked about the motion.