Feds won't build new Science and Technology Museum
$500M project seeks to create 'Smithsonian of the north'
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/07/18/...hnology-museum
BY JON WILLING ,OTTAWA SUN
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012 07:27 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012 08:18 PM EDT
With the Domtar complex on the Ottawa River being the preferred choice for a half-billion-dollar relocation of the Canada Science and Technology Museum, managers are knee-deep in planning and hoping taxpayers foot most of the bill.
Turns out, it might all be castles in the air.
A spokesman for Heritage Minister James Moore says the feds won’t fund it.
“We will not be building a new science and technology museum,” Sebastien Gariepy wrote in an e-mail to the Sun.
That could leave the museum running a colossal fundraising campaign or reaching out to the private sector for a partnership. Internal museum documents suggest capital costs could be as high as $700 million.
The museum has banked on raising $150 million from philanthropic donors, the documents say.
But as museum public affairs VP Yves St-Onge pointed out in an interview this week, the private sector often wants to see a public funding commitment before signing on.
“It’s chicken and egg,” St-Onge said.
A stack of 2011-2012 museum meeting minutes and reports obtained by the Sun shows a lot of thought going into moving the museum downtown Ottawa or Gatineau.
In June 2010, the museum went public that it was looking at four sites, including Domtar. The other three sites are LeBreton Flats, Rockcliffe Park and Jacques-Cartier Park.
The Domtar complex, north of the Canadian War Museum, is the top-ranked site.
“It is an incredible location because it is at the hub of many things in town,” St-Onge said. “It spans over two cities, spans over two provinces.”
The museum — famous for its crazy kitchen display and more recently for its sex exhibit — is in southeast Ottawa and there’s a burning desire to find a bigger space somewhere in the core to create, as one document says, a “Smithsonian of the north.”
Only 2% of the museum’s collection can be on display at once because of space constraints. The museum has operated since 1967 in what was once a bakery warehouse.
A business case commissioned by the museum — at a cost of $174,000 — suggests visitor attendance is being hampered by lack of space and outdated exhibits.
Several heavy-hitters have been consulted during the museum’s planning, including leaders of other Canadian museums, industry bigwigs and university presidents. Ten students from University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management were also invited to the table.
And there has been political jockeying, too.
Minutes from a meeting last May say two NDP MPs requested to meet with museum CEO Denise Amyot about building the new museum in Gatineau.
Mayoral offices in Ottawa and Gatineau have been kept in the loop, too.
Meanwhile, there remains a faint hope the museum can somehow snatch the Domtar property.
Domtar spokesman Stuart Lister noted the company sold its hydro assets recently to Hydro Ottawa, but the rest of the property is still for sale.
“We are actively looking for a buyer,” Lister said, but he declined to say if the museum is factoring into any discussions.
“We don’t comment on past, future or current negotiations.”
The museum’s internal documents were obtained for the Sun by access specialist Ken Rubin.
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Twitter: @JonathanWilling
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