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The province has canceled the controversial $ 789 million Royal BC Museum project following intense public reaction.
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June 22, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 4 minutes reading • 55 comments British Columbia Prime Minister John Horgan speaks during a media scrum Photo of TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post
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After insisting for weeks that the only way to protect BC history was a $ 789 million replacement for the Royal BC Museum, Prime Minister John Horgan stepped back on Wednesday, halting the project and taking responsibility for judging. bad public support.
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“We made decisions based on the best information available and we thought we had it right,” Horgan told a news conference in Victoria. “Clearly, we didn’t. I heard from the people of British Columbia quite clearly that we were making the wrong decision at the wrong time.
“I made the wrong call.”
While critics said the descent was the right move, they said the harm is done.
The province will start again and ask the Royal BC Museum to fully consult with the public before deciding on the future of the building, which Horgan said continues to be in desperate need of modernization.
He said he took full responsibility for the bad time of the project, which occurred during an accessibility crisis that has made British Colombians struggle to pay higher prices for gas and food.
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“With all the other challenges they face in their daily lives (gasoline prices, food prices, rent, mortgage payments and the prospect of raising interest rates, challenges in healthcare) , the audience felt that we were putting them all together to focus on the museum, “Horgan said. “It simply came to our notice then.
“I think the right way is to take a step back, take responsibility as head of government and see where the consultation takes us.”
Horgan had been under intense pressure to stop the project, and many said the government should first spend public money to solve health problems and improve schools seismically.
There was no public consultation before the surprise announcement on May 13 that the 54-year-old museum would be closed, demolished and replaced in 2030.
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The decision to drop the project was made Monday at a cabinet meeting, but Horgan said he had been thinking about the negative response since a week after the May 13 announcement when the project had “landed with a noise “.
Horgan said Wednesday he did not want the museum to become a “row of laughter at a party” or political football.
The change of face means that the museum will not close on September 6. The province, however, will continue with the construction of a new $ 224 million archives and collections building in Colwood, a suburb of Victoria.
BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon, who called for the cancellation of the “vanity museum boondoggle,” told reporters he was happy the project had been frozen, but this “is not a moment of leadership “for Horgan.
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Falcon is concerned that the government will launch the project “until the temperature drops”, go through a “false” consultation process and rebuild anyway.
Falcon noted that the Prime Minister has prejudged the outcome of any consultation process by declaring that he is not in favor of renovating the museum.
Despite the two weeks of assault during question period during the end of the spring session and the angry emails from voters across the province, Horgan and Tourism Minister Melanie Mark had insisted that the “story collapsed. The province’s museum is in danger because the old museum is not seismically at risk of flooding.
BC Green MP Adam Olsen said: “The harm is done.”
Horgan and Mark “sounded like it was going to fall and there was asbestos in the air,” Olsen said. “They have to take responsibility for everything they said while defending this project.”
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David Black, a political communications expert and professor at Royal Roads University, said it was a politically wise decision to push back the museum’s replacement after its “scandal” deployment.
New Democrats could not ignore the results of an Angus Reid poll published last week which showed that 69% of British Colombians oppose the costly reconstruction of the Royal BC Museum and are more concerned about inflation. health care and housing accessibility.
“That’s a doomed number on any issue,” Black said.
The $ 789 million price impacted taxpayers, and if it had gone ahead, the project would have been the most expensive museum project in Canadian history in direct, non-inflated dollars.
In response to concerns that the public was left in the dark about the cost of $ 789 million, Mark released the business case on May 25 that showed that revitalizing or repairing old buildings would cost as much or even more than build a new museum.
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“We’re just not going to let this project go,” Mark said at the time. “There is a risk of doing nothing.”
However, critics noted that there are 250 schools in BC awaiting seismic updates.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Education confirmed that it is delaying seven previously promised new schools and seismic upgrades from existing schools due to the financial impacts of last year’s pandemic and catastrophic floods. That was even though Horgan said on June 7 that there were no restrictions on school capital budgets.
kderosa@postmedia.com
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