The Liberal Party's Billion-Dollar Museum
The Liberal Party is annoyed that the Conservatives are not willing to spend a billion dollars on a museum. Of course, spending great wads of taxpayer cash has always been a profitable business for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Ottawa South Liberal MP David McGuinty is furious. Stephen Harper's Conservative government has decided that spending $800 million or $400 million or a gajillion simoleons on a museum in McGuinty's riding is simply not a priority:
The federal government has dashed any lingering hopefor a new Canada Museum of Science and Technology, saying it has no money even for a slimmed-down project that would cost half the $800 million originally envisaged.
Treasury Board President John Baird acknowledged museum officials have revised their plan, but said it is still too expensive for the government to support.
''They came forward with an $800-million project, then they reduced it to $500 million, and then they reduced it to $400 million. We don't have $400 million to build a new museum in Ottawa. Taxpayers cannot afford that,''Baird said.
Ottawa South Liberal MP David McGuinty criticized the decision, saying it is part of the continuing neglect of Ottawa by the federal Tories. He said it fits a pattern that includes the decision to locate the Portrait Gallery in Calgary and Baird's role in killing the city's north-south light rail project.
''It is disappointing to hear Mr. Baird say that a new Museum of Science and Technology is off the table,''McGuinty said.
Who has a billion or half-a-billion for a museum?
But then the Liberals think that would be a great idea.
I have another great idea. This is a technology museum, right? Why not use technology to create a museum at a hundredth of the cost?
Why doesn't McGuinty suggest a compromise as a way of protecting Canadian taxpayers' dollars? A virtual museum:
The museum, housed in a cramped former bakery since 1967, has been looking for a permanent home for five years. Officials have long complained that a large part of its collection of about a million artifacts, photos and papers is languishing in warehouses.
You scan all the documents and photos and papers, index them, and make them available on the web. Each artifact is accompanied with a write-up prepared by historians and researchers working under contract. Better yet, offer jobs to students to research the pieces and to develop reading material.
Artifacts get covered by multiple high-res photographs and videos. In a follow-on, create highly detailed 3D models of the artifacts, able to be rotated and zoom and cross-section via a browser-based interface.
Along with the original material, incorporate Wikis and forums so that the museum's virtual visitors can add their comments and observations, especially of those examples of technology that form a part of everyday life.
Wrap the whole thing up in a slick website developed by Canada's best web designers.
I think the idea is a good one. Every student in Canada can visit the museum without trying to raise the funds needed for a full-blown school trip. No longer are students in Ontario and Quebec at an advantage by virtue of their proximity to Ottawa.
Not only is the overall idea cheaper, it can be rolled out in stages. Unlike a bricks-and-mortar museum that needs to be finished once started, the development of a virtual museum can be throttled back if circumstances demand it.
Could the Liberals get behind this idea, and stop pushing for the billion-dollar boondoggle? Don't bet on it.
The reason is simple. The more you spend, the more you can pilfer. Sorry, but why else would McGuinty and his fellow Liberals want the government to take on such a huge undertaking? They figure that they'll be back in power before the museum would get off the ground. Then, as the hundreds of millions start moving around, a bit of it here and a bit of it there would end up stuffed in some envelope left on the table of some Ottawa restaurant. With hundreds of millions at stake, construction firms and other contractors desperate for a chunk of that cash would make certain the right palms were greased.
The Liberals have shown over and over again that their trustworthiness as guardians of the public purse is, at best, very questionable.
And yet what have they learned? To bleat long and loud when hundreds of millions don't get spent on some huge project. This time it would be different. This time the money would be handled responsibly. This time the Liberals would not give reason for Canada to be embarassed on the world stage.
The Conservatives know better than to start a megaproject of dubious necessity that could take so long to complete that there would be a chance that the Liberals would get their hands on it. That the Liberals lack the imagination, or the desire, to offer a far less expensive alternative doesn't surprise me in the least.
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"The Liberals have shown over and over again that their trustworthiness as guardians of the public purse is, at best, very questionable."
And with this McAsswipe being the brother of the other McAsswipe spending his way in Ontario we can all guess in who's pockets the money will end up in.
Posted by: Pissedoff at January 5, 2007 02:30 AM
I was posting on another site recently about a hospital being built in Tennessee. Brand new, 200,000 square-feet, 79 acute-care beds with an adjacent cancer survival centre - for a cost of 90 million US. I'm not sure what a medical school would cost, but I'm willing to bet we could get one of those off the ground for less than 800 million as well.
So until phrases like: 'hallway medicine', 'medical wait times' and "dying on a waiting list" become a thing of the past, then we had damned well BETTER not be blowing a billion bucks -or any bucks- on another museum (not that that would stop most liberal pols -who can afford the private health-care that they don't want the rest of us to be able to access).
Also, until liberals are relieved of their hegemonic control of our schools, textbooks and museums there is no sense to building another museum. If that abortion that is the War Museum or the proposed Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg (read: 'if you're white, male, Christian, heterosexual, conservative and of British ancestry, then please kill yourself now out of shame') are any indication, then museums are not about learning anymore. They're about indoctrination.
Posted by: up north at January 5, 2007 02:46 AM
No surprise that the Liberals want more access to our dollars. But, didn't they promise internet access to far flung communities? Your idea of making the museum available on line is phenomenal--if the Liberals were at all forward thinking they would jump at this chance to pound home the message about how much they had done for Canadians by stating this is a good next step to their original idea of internet access.
I am proud to say I have never visited a museum in Ottawa--don't need more social engineering shoved down my throat. Who could forget the famous 'Fire' painting, or the twelve dead rabbits hanging in a tree' expenditure? Who can forget the blood spilled on a canvas that we paid a grant for? If this is Liberal(Ottawa) ideal as something worthy of being in a museum I say bravo to the conservatives--we don't need more garbage hanging on a wall--or any other museum.
Posted by: George at January 5, 2007 07:16 AM
Wish there were more "up norths" talking to the U. S. press about the efficiency of the Canadian medical system. That might inhibit the libs here from heading down the same road.
I agree totally relative the museum situation. Spending tax dollars on elephant manure madonna's and homosexual porn, ANY porn, is so beyond the pale, there are no words sufficient to describe my scorn. Look at the problems we're having with the 9/11 site. The left coast elitists tried to turn it into a tribute to multiculturism with no mention of the reason there's now a crater instead of a building. This, and our unwillingness to breed, will be the death of western civilization.
Posted by: iowavette at January 5, 2007 08:53 AM
$100 million for the Museum....$700 million for the consultants....
Posted by: Feldwebel Wolfenstool at January 5, 2007 09:39 AM
I really like the virtual museum idea.
How do we get behind something like that?
Posted by: radford at January 5, 2007 11:16 AM
Yes, yes and yes.
The virtual museum idea is splendid. As examples of the kinds of sites that would work, check out the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's websites.
As for the Libranos coming in with lower quotes, my Dad can tell you all about that. They quote low then put in for changes. For example, when my Dad was consulting engineer on the Ontario Science Centre (see? we already have one) it was supposed to open in 1967 as a centennial project and cost $10 million. It opened in 1970 at a cost of around $40 million. My Dad had a bank (12, if memory serves) of large filing cabinets filled with nothing but change notices from the architect. These changes ripple down to affect the engineers, designers, contractors, suppliers and of course, the client, which in this case was the good people of Ontario.
I suppose the Libranos will continue to try to paint Harper as a philistine but nothing could be further from the truth. He's just realistic and has the good of the country at heart - something that I imagine is quite foreign to the Libranos. Harper is being conservative, get it? That means fiscal responsibility, restraint and common sense.
Works for me.
Posted by: Selma at January 5, 2007 11:41 AM
they still might spend 100 million on a human rights one in Manitoba.
Of course it will have nothing about the abortion genocide.
Posted by: Biopiracy at January 5, 2007 02:08 PM
What a brilliant idea... using modern science to create a modern museum: a virtual museum!
Seriously, not only could you create an incredible website with streaming video, fully manipulative images, all the documentation you need available to print off at any time, but perhaps they could also offer schools computer compatible DVD's that would give you everything you could want to experience what would normally need a road trip to see. Perhaps somebody should suggest this to an MP as a new program for the Conservatives to look into... expanding museum project paradigms from being simply a brick and mortar project to also include fully interactive, virtual museums that would give students instant access to all information they could ever need.
It doesn't mean that this would spell the end to building museums. What it would mean is that we would finally be taking advantage of the new technology available to us to make truly national museums that all people could visit at any time they want.
Posted by: Surecure at January 5, 2007 03:06 PM
Oh sure, Canada is a country which is tremendously successful at science, technology, and that kind of stuff, and Canadian boffins are just as smart as any other country's boffins. We have a lot of homemade hi-tech gadgetry and plain old ingenuity to boast about. It's just that the science and technology we've developed hasn't managed to generate enough profits yet in order for the owners and employees of all our great science and technology companies to build their own museum. But make no mistake, Canadians are absolutely first class inventors and builders. Just not quite ingenious enough to save up the bucks to build an exhibition hall and fill it with a couple of old trains and a domed theatre.
Or, we're a bunch of puffed-up, over-taxed, bureaucrat-ridden, Marxist-educated, oil- and tree-rich banana republicans who can barely get out of bed in the morning, get in the pickup truck and drive to work at the pulp mill without a massive government program to lure investors to build a factory for us and pay us just barely enough (if our wives work too) to buy our kids hockey equipment.
Whatever.
And by the way. We already have a huge, wonderful, easily accessible and nearly infinitely fun-filled and fact-filled virtual museum. Called the World Wide Web. Do you really think that we need to give politicians and government hacks an excuse to try and "improve" this great invention? More like, beat it into the ground with censorship, taxes, subsidies, racial and linguistic quotas, waste, corruption ... the usual socialist fun.
P.S. just so your more, how you say, progressive thinkers, won't have to waste any brain cells trying to explain the inner workings of Dalton McGuinty's mind: Hitler! Goebbels! Mussolini! Holocaust! Gestapo! World War 2!
Posted by: at January 5, 2007 11:32 PM
The War museum cost about $135 million. Why would a technology museum cost so much?
Posted by: jgriffin at January 6, 2007 01:58 AM
Well said, and Happy New Year to you Angry and your readers.
There are many things that the National Archives/Library holds that I am interested in seeing. On my last trip to Ottawa I was able to get complete files on all my uncles who served in the Royal Canadian Army in WWI. The archives, now Collections Canada, I believe, does provide their attestation papers - but in Ottawa you can get so much more (or hire a researcher to get it for you). I am also extremely interested in shipping matters, especially shipping accidents on the British Columbia coast. Collections Canada has posted a smattering of investigations from across the country on the net and I have enjoyed reading them. Unfortunately, most of the ones I want to get are available for viewing (and copying)only in Ottawa.
Well done, Angry, encourage our leaders to make readily available to all Canadians what is centralized in Ottawa. It just might make all feel a little better about being Canadians.
Lance M. Jefferson
Richmond, British Columbia
Posted by: Lance M. Jefferson at January 6, 2007 01:23 PM
"It just might make all feel a little better about being Canadians." LMJ
Lance, you're treading into dangerous territory there. Much of our rewritten history might wind up being rewritten again. Or -worse- simply restored. Think of the consequences man ! Canadians might actually find a reason to be proud of their heritage. For that matter, Canadians might find out that they actually have a heritage.
And what of our cherished belief that "at least we're not the Americans" ? We might conceivably wind up standing on our own two feet in history. We could (easily), but are we ready for that ?
I can (and often do -in my cups-) expound on the multitudinous reasons why we can and should be proud to be Canadian, but I'm not sure if the whole country is ready for it yet.
Not after decades of liberal browbeating -telling us that we're all helpless and need a huge (Liberal) government to look after us.
Don't forget those dark warnings before the last election where we were warned that Canadians would be forced to be self-sufficient...er...I mean left on our own...
sarcasm off/
Posted by: up north at January 6, 2007 08:05 PM
One would think with Adscam still on the minds of many with money stolen and not yet recovered the Liberals would have a CLUE when it comes to our money.
800 Million bucks for a Museum of any kind is obscene when we are literally dying for the lack of timely health care.
The McGuinty Brothers sure have a strange allocation of priorities. Not smart at all.
When and if we do decide on a Museum of Technology let's hope we can use our Technology to make it more affordable.
Posted by: Liz J at January 7, 2007 01:56 PM
It would be very interesting to see what the difference between the proposed $800 million museum and the $400 million museum are. How were they able to so easily cut the cost of such a financially huge project in half? If the Government threatened to stop all of these type of proposals would they all suddenly be able to cost half as much as the people involved decided half as much profit is better than none? Where was the $800 million really going in the first place?
In recent years the Scottish Parliament has made all members expenses publicly available on the internet for everyone to see. This did result in a few embarassments, refunding of payments and even the odd resignation. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Government made similar use of Canadian Technology to make more detailed financial information on everything from expenses to project costings publicly available? I think they could then truly talk about transparency and make it incredibly more difficult for anyone to scam money on these type of things.
Posted by: VanJoe at January 8, 2007 09:26 AM
Be careful of what you wish for Steve because you might just get it. You suggest that a virtual museum would be a cheaper alternative. Judging by what various governments spend on IT projects, e.g. $450 million and counting for the Ontario e-Health system, it wouldn't surprise me if a web site cost $200 million.
Posted by: C. Ilkay at January 11, 2007 02:46 AM
Public Health Engineering Section(PHE) under Ministry of Communications was entrusted with the programme and in June 1998, PHE Section was transferred to the Department of Health, Ministry of Health and Education since water supply and sanitation is a maj WBR LeoP
Posted by: John Medicine at January 21, 2007 05:08 PM
When the nearest exhibition Progressive medical the equipment? WBR LeoP
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