The Maritime Museum of B.C. has been given a month-long extension by the province to enable staff and volunteers to finish clearing out artifacts from the Bastion Square site it moved to in 1965.
Closed since Oct. 21, 2014, the museum was under a long-standing request to vacate by Wednesday. That deadline has been extended to the end of October, said museum chairman Clay Evans.
The museum still has three permanent part-time staff — a curator, a volunteer co-ordinator and an office manager — who are focusing on moving the collection, most of which is going into storage. They will be funded for one more month with $10,000 from the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services.
“It will be difficult to maintain these essential staff with our prime source of revenue — admissions — being eliminated,” Evans said. “I am thankful for the extension, although I don’t feel that it will be enough additional time to do the entire move. There are a lot of items remaining at 28 Bastion [Square].”
The province has hired contractors to do the move and will cover the costs. The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is helping with storage and there are plans to eventually exhibit some large artifacts, including the Tilikum dugout canoe, a whaling gun and several interpretive display cases.
“We have committed to providing them with additional space and have offered to showcase items in our terminal in 2016,” said Ian Robertson, CEO of the Harbour Authority. The offer was made to highlight the importance of maritime heritage in Victoria, he said.
The Bastion Square building was transferred by the City of Victoria to the province in 1977 for $1 in return for a mutually agreed home for the museum.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps recently wrote to Premier Christy Clark, noting that the terms of the transfer included “an ongoing obligation by the province to house the collection of the Maritime Museum of B.C. and to retain the property in public ownership.”
The city has posted a copy of the agreement, signed by the provincial secretary and a former mayor, on its website. Last week, city manager Jason Johnson met with deputy minister John Jacobson and associate deputy minister Sarf Ahmed from the Citizens’ Services Ministry.
The museum benefits the whole region, said View Royal Mayor David Screech, calling its homeless situation “a heartbreaking story.” He called it regrettable that no one in the province is “stepping up and taking leadership.”
Three ministries were involved in negotiations for a new home in the past year. Talks for the favoured space — the CPR Steamship Terminal Building in the Inner Harbour — fell through.
The museum secured an offer of $500,000 from the Bahamas-based TK Foundation to pay for improvement costs, had it been able to line up rent assistance that was not forthcoming from the province.
Ocean Networks Canada, based at the University of Victoria, has been chosen by the Harbour Authority to negotiate for 6,000 square feet on the causeway level of the 1905 landmark.
kdedyna@timescolonist.com
