Museum expects $40M in pledges by Dec. 25
Fundraising for the new $65million Canadian Canoe Museum is continuing across the country, said museum chairman Jon Ronson on Wednesday, and he expects they will have $40 million pledged by Christmas.
Construction is expected to start next year, and Ronson expects the new building on the canal by the Peterborough Liftlock to be open by spring, 2022.
The museum, considered the world's largest collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft, has been housed for the past 20 years in former Outboard Marine buildings on Monaghan Rd.
The collection includes canoes donated by singer Gordon Lightfoot, author Farley Mowat's "boat that wouldn't float" from his youth and former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's iconic buckskin jacket.
Now they are planning to build a new museum designed by Heneghan Peng Architects from Dublin, Ireland and Kearns Mancini Architects from Toronto.
Ronson said half the $65 million necessary to build the new facility is expected to come from government funds, while the rest will come from private donors.
The federal government gave first: it offered $1.5 million in seed money to help with early expenses, with the potential of up to $15 million more to come.
The Ontario government then promised $9 million, the city $4 million and Peterborough County $500,000.
The money from the city and county have been pledged but not yet paid (the city will give $4 million over eight years, for example, with payments beginning in 2019).
The provincial funding was pledged by former Liberal MPP Jeff Leal in 2017; payments were to come over three years (20172019). The commitment was honoured last year and this year, Ronson said, and he expects the money will still flow in 2019 (even as the provincial government has frozen some types of grants, such as those for policing, as it reviews its expenses).
No information was available Wednesday from MPP Dave Smith, or from the provincial Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.
Meanwhile there could be a further announcement “fairly soon” from the federal government on their application for funding, Ronson said; there’s the potential for up to $15 million.
No further information was available Wednesday from the office of Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef.
There have also been large private gifts: the W. Garfield Weston Foundation announced in May it is donating $7.5 million, for example.
Ronson said officials are meeting with donors in many large cities across Canada, and that 85 per cent of the money for the museum will come from donors living outside Peterborough.
“We’re literally fundraising across the country,” he said.
The design for the new museum calls for a one-storey building with a massive green roof with rooftop gardens.
Inside it will have a meeting space large enough to accommodate 400 people for a sit-down meal.
Ronson said construction drawings are being prepared, and he expects it will go to tender early in the new year.
He also said the canoe museum’s current property on Monaghan Road will be put up for sale sometime after construction starts on the new building next year.