HORGAN'S MUSEUM MESS `A POLITICAL FOOTBALL'

No rationale for eight-year closure, no explanation for its `tear down'

When Premier John Horgan announced the $1-billion makeover of the provincial museum last week, some business and community leaders were surprised that the existing institution is closing in September and the replacement won't be ready for eight years.

“The length of closure was something that wasn't made clear to everybody,” says Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

“We heard that it would be three to five years,” he told Gregor Craigie during an interview on the CBC's On the Island this week. “The museum is one of the keystones to people visiting the region.”

Williams, who was present for the announcement last Friday, says there “was quite a high-charged, palpable sense of energy in the room.”

That was probably because the premier highlighted the good news that the government was spending $1 billion on a new archive building and a state-of-the-art museum.

Horgan never mentioned that the tourism sector and the downtown business district would have to make do without any museum for eight full years.

You had to read to page three of the media release to discover that the museum “will close its doors on Sept. 6 (and) the new modernized provincial museum is expected to open in 2030.”

Nor did the premier have a good rationalization when asked why the eight-year shutdown, given that the government is four years away from the start of construction on the replacement.

“Tourism will be stifled for a period, ” he conceded, “but expanding to a level that we've not seen before, bringing more and more people to B.C.”

Stifled for a period? The government says almost 900,000 people visit the museum every year.

The premier's ruthless construction schedule means seven million fewer visits in a tourist town still recovering from the pandemic.

As for Tourism Minister Melanie Mark, she was (by her own admission) caught up in the emotion of the moment.

At one point she referred to the “beloved Old Town” exhibit that used to be on the third floor of the existing museum

Last fall, she presided over the permanent closure and removal of Old Town on grounds that it was part of an institution that needed to be “decolonized” forthwith.

Only after an outcry by capital region residents who really did love Old Town, did Mark drop the “de-colonialization” rhetoric and begin referring to the need to “modernize” and seismically upgrade the museum. But Horgan himself provided a sense of what the New Democrats really thought of Old Town and the museum in general.

Last Friday, he described the museum as a place where he sends visitors he doesn't want to meet when they come down.

He also said he was tired of Old Town:

“I'm yearning for something new.”

Listening to the premier and the minister, one got a sense that the New Democrats are bent on demolishing the provincial museum as soon as possible and consigning its contents to memory.

Indeed, one longtime museum insider speculates that the New Democrats want to “Site C” the museum project.

That is a reference to the way B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark made sure that construction of the Site C dam was “past the point of return” by the 2017 election.

As indeed proved to be the case when Horgan took over.

On Thursday, Horgan conceded that the museum announcement had “landed with a thud.”

Turning to lecturing mode, he told reporters that the “announcement was characterized inappropriately. ... It was certainly not our intention to appear to be tone deaf to the challenges British Columbians are facing.”

Let's see now: Government announces $1-billion project with no design, no rationalization for the eight-year closure and no explanation for designating an award-winning museum into a “tear down” come September.

Plus, no business plan to address all of the unanswered questions.

And he wonders why it landed with a thud.

Finance Minister Selina Robinson advised the legislature this week that an all-in business plan was approved by the Treasury Board committee of cabinet back in March. Robinson, who chairs the Treasury Board, claimed it included all the elements of a proper plan: budget, timeline, risk analysis, procurement strategy, consideration of alternatives.

But when the Opposition asked for specifics, Robinson repeatedly — I counted 19 times — referred those questions to Mark.

Of course, Robinson knew very well that legislature debate on Mark's budget and spending plan occurred back in March, about the same time Robinson was fielding the business plan without disclosing the fact publicly.

Yet Robinson refused to confirm exactly when the business plan went through the Treasury Board.

“After this much tap dancing, it should have been a performing arts centre that is getting built,” quipped Liberal MLA and finance critic Peter Milobar.

The tourism minister, scrambling to contain the fallout from the $1-billion announcement, promised to release a business plan by “the end of the week.”

Thursday, she put it off to next Wednesday, claiming the delay was owing “to the complex nature of the project.”

More likely a bunch of public servants will be spending the weekend with whiteout and black censorship banners, removing anything that might actually shed light on this boondoggle.

“I very much regret that the jewel of our collective history has become a political football,” the premier said Thursday.

He has only himself and his minister to blame.

One got a sense the New Democrats are bent on demolishing the provincial museum as soon as possible and consigning its contents to memory.