It has cost the City of Victoria almost $23,000 so far to remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from the steps of Victoria City Hall — almost half of its annual budget for reconciliation with First Nations.
The cost didn’t surprise Stan Bartlett, chair of the Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria, who said there are probably still costs to come. “Hiring a crane and operators on a weekend in the middle of the night is costly,” Bartlett said.
He wondered whether costs were factored in for about half a dozen police officers and private security guards who monitored protests held in conjunction with the statue’s removal in early August. “I [also] wonder about the cost of storage. I hope poor old Sir John has his nose dusted off periodically,” he said.
“Presumably it will be relocated and there will be a cost to relocating Sir John. Presumably there will be a plaque offering up a more balanced take on history. That is going to cost some money. Goodness knows what other costs we’ve missed in the $23,000.”
When contacted, city staff said they could provide no breakdown of the costs and that the figure represents expenses to date. The final cost is still being confirmed as expenses come in, a city spokesperson said.
City council agreed in August to remove the statue on the recommendation of an appointed panel called the City Family, which includes Mayor Lisa Helps, Alto, Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, Brianna Dick representing the Songhees Nation, Esquimalt hereditary chief Ed Thomas, and Indigenous community member Carey Newman.
Lack of a public process prior to the statue’s removal prompted significant public outcry.
The total of $22,976 for removing the statue was included in a report to council by Helps and Coun. Marianne Alto, who were recommending $6,000 be allocated out of the reconciliation budget for Orange Shirt Day, an event scheduled for Sunday at Centennial Square.
Orange Shirt Day is a national event intended to raise awareness of the harm caused by the residential school system, and racism and bullying.
Victoria council budgeted $50,000 in each of 2017 and 2018 to support reconciliation projects. To date, $32,757 has been spent over the two years, including $4,500 for Orange Shirt Day in 2017, $5,281 for City Family meetings and ceremonies, and the statue relocation costs of $22,976, the report says.
Helps first recommended the removal in a briefing note to councillors on a Monday evening. A late item was added to a committee of the whole agenda the next day and then the removal was formally announced on Helps’ website on the Wednesday.
On the Thursday, councillors voted eight to one to remove the statue. Then, in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, a crane was brought in and the 635-kilogram bronze statue was hauled away into storage, pending a decision on where it should be relocated.
In her re-election platform, Helps has promised to host a series of information meetings on reconciliation to determine a new public location for the statue.
Helps has since said the decision to relocate the Macdonald statue was the right one, citing the role of Canada’s first prime minister in creating the residential school system.
But she apologized for the lack of public process. “I didn’t recognize the great desire of Victoria residents to participate in reconciliation actions. The process going forward will enable this,” Helps said in an Aug. 29 opinion piece in the Times Colonist.
