New canoe museum expected to be scaled down

City councillors want officials to present updated plan

City councillors are going to invite officials from the Canadian Canoe Museum to come to city hall early in 2021 to provide an update on the new location, design and funding for their planned new facility — and museum officials stated Tuesday they’d be “delighted” to offer that update.

The museum abandoned plans in late October to build a $65-million facility on Parks Canada land beside the Lift Lock and is looking for a new waterfront site in the city.

The property turned out to be contaminated from the former Westclox property nearby. So museum officials announced they were planning to find a new site, which means nixing the site-specific design.

But they haven’t announced a new location, new design or costs yet, and Coun. Andrew Beamer said he thought council ought to know those details — and councillors agreed to ask for an update.

City council had committed in 2017 to giving the museum $4 million over eight years, although payments aren’t scheduled to begin until 2022 when construction had been expected to start.

But Beamer said he’s heard that the museum won’t be a $65-million building anymore.

He said he’s heard that it will be $40 million or $45 million, and that it’s not sure to have every design feature previously in the plan (such as a reception space to seat 500 people, for instance, which the city lacks).

“I’ve been told by people who know what’s going on that it’s going to be a scaled-down Ca-nadian Canoe Museum,” Beamer said.

“I just want to make sure: What’s the plan? And are we getting our $4-million worth, since they made promises on what would be in the original one?”

Coun. Stephen Wright, Beamer’s ward-mate in Northcrest Ward, said he agreed.

“It’s important they let us know what the plan is, moving forward,” Wright said.

On Tuesday, museum officials released a statement to The Examiner saying they will be delighted to offer an update to council in 2021 — but they don’t say whether the building will be scaled back.

In a written statement issued

to The Examiner on Tuesday, the museum stated that they will offer an update in the new year.

“We are delighted to return to council to provide an update on the project as we have previously done,” reads the statement.

“Further to our recent reports, we are proactively searching for a suitable alternate location where we will build our new canoe museum. We look forward to sharing further updates as we move toward realizing the vision of creating a significant national and international tourism destination that will be a vibrant cultural community hub on the Peterborough waterfront.”

Meanwhile, three other councillors said on Monday they want to stick to the funding commitment they’d previously made: Coun. Lesley Parnell, Coun. Gary Baldwin and Coun. Henry Clarke all said they didn’t want to go back on their funding promise.

Yet in the end Parnell and Baldwin did vote along with everyone else in council chambers to hear an update from museum officials in 2021 (Clarke was participating in the meeting virtually and it wasn’t clear to those in council chambers how he voted).

Parnell said she is “quite familiar with this file,” and that she knows for sure the museum is going to be built.

She said the city’s commitment to give $4 million had been “essential” in securing funds from the provincial and federal governments.

Museum officials said in October they had already raised a bit more than $45 million, but Parnell was concerned that if the city went back on its commitment it would hurt donor confidence.

“I suspect that if we waver, it could really hurt their fundraising efforts,” Parnell said.

“It will proceed — and it will be in a great location — I don’t want to risk that confidence over the funding.”

Clarke also said he’d spoken with museum officials and said the museum board is working on securing a new location, “one that makes a lot of sense” (he didn’t say where).

Clarke said he didn’t want the project to lose momentum or funding :“This is an extremely important thing for the city.”

“I think if we’re reneging, in a sense, on our commitment — that’s not what a good corporate citizen does,” said Baldwin.

“They need the long-term commitment from the city … And we need to support this enterprise,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to undermine the decision made by the previous council.

But Beamer said the museum’s plans have completely changed and now council doesn’t know much about the project that’s getting $4 million in city taxpayers’ dollars.

It’s the museum that’ s changed its plan, Beamer said — not the city — and city council has a right and a responsibility to ask questions.

“It’s not the agreement we struck — so welcome to the business world.”