Old Town exhibit (Image credit: Royal B.C. Museum).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Tearing down and rebuilding the B.C. museum is a really bad idea

May 18, 2022 | 4:46 AM

WHEN KAMLOOPS CITY COUNCIL approved funds for detailed design plans for an addition to the RCMP detachment building on Battle Street, I admit it caught my attention.

I wondered how it’s possible to spend $4.75 million just for blueprints, then another $50 million to $80 million for the addition itself.

There’s no doubt more space and an upgrade are necessary, but those are staggering numbers. They pale by comparison, however, to the provincial government’s plans to tear down the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria and replace it with a totally new building. That cost — with no detailed plans and not even conceptual drawings — is somehow estimated at an unbelievable $789 million.

Add in a plan to take the provincial archives out of the museum building and move them to a new building of their own, and the NDP’s grandiose intentions will cost taxpayers a billion dollars.

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It’s all so unnecessary. Keep in mind the province originally announced a major renovation to the museum in order to “decolonize” it. Now there’s a much over-used buzz word but that’s a topic for another day.

At any rate, the government soon changed its tune and decided the reason for the gut job — which included removing the popular Old Town and HMS Discovery exhibits — had to do with hazardous materials and seismic instability.

While government ministers are touting the plan as “the people’s museum,” the people have had no say in it. No public consultation has been held and it doesn’t appear there will be any. The decision has been made.

In fact, there never has been any public demand for this ridiculous plan. Nobody asked for it. It comes entirely from somewhere within a cabinet that decided all on its own that it would be a fabulous idea.

B.C. needs a fine provincial museum, but it already has one. This billion-dollar boondoggle of a plan should be scrapped immediately.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.