BC to spend $789 million to replace Royal BC Museum


The province says it will spend nearly $800 million to replace the Royal BC Museum.

In a major announcement on Friday, the BC government revealed that it plans to spend $789 million to replace the Royal BC Museum with an entirely new museum that it says will be state-of-the-art and seismically safe.

The new museum, which has not been named, is scheduled to open in 2030 and will remain in the same location in downtown Victoria, across the street from the BC Legislature.

“It will be a place where generations of British Columbians will learn more about the extraordinary history of this province,” Premier John Horgan said during Friday’s announcement at the Royal BC Museum.

As part of the plan, the existing Royal BC Museum will close on September 6. The Imax Victoria theatre, as well as the museum’s gift shop and food trucks located at the museum, will remain open through early 2023. Once the museum closes completely, some exhibits will remain in circulation until reopened. open the new installation.

The provincial government claims that the new museum will bring significant economic and social benefits to the region, supporting more than 1,950 direct jobs in construction, as well as more than 1,050 associated jobs.

Although there are no renderings of the new museum, it will feature massive wood construction and be designed for maximum energy efficiency.

“We’re going to put practical British Columbian pieces on the walls, floors and ceilings of the building that will create thousands of local jobs,” Horgan said.

The Royal BC Museum has experienced turmoil in recent months, with members of staff coming forward with accusations of racism, the resignation of the chief executive and the closure of the gallery on the third floor.

Royal BC Museum CEO Alicia Dubois, who was on hand for Friday’s announcement, has been hired as the new CEO to help “modernize” the museum, and former NDP MLA Carole James has been appointed to the museum board to help fix the culture in the Museum.

Horgan said the time has come for the Royal BC Museum to be “brought into the 21st century” and tell the story of the province.

“Obviously the impacts of settlements are there for all to see. Before the colonization, before the expansion of Europe, we had a rich, rich culture and tradition with hundreds of [First Nations] spanning thousands of years. Those stories can, should and will be told in this institution,” he said, adding. “If we’re going to tell our story, we have to make sure everyone is included in that story.”

It is not clear if the name of the Royal BC Museum will change to another. During Friday’s announcement, BC Tourism Minister Melanie Mark said nothing has been decided on that front.

“We haven’t made any decisions there, I think,” Mark said. “We’re going to go to British Columbians and ask them what a new, modern, reinvented museum should and could look like, and I imagine we’re going to get a lot of suggestions about what the new name should be.”

The provincial government has hinted that changes may be coming to the museum, and Mark recently wrote an op-ed saying the museum facility had reached the end of its useful life.

“They are at seismic risk and are vulnerable to damage,” Mark said in the January 29 op-ed. “In the event of a major flood, artifacts and irreplaceable parts of BC history could be damaged and lost forever.”

Once completed, the new building will be a “safer, more inclusive and accessible modern museum” for the people of British Columbia and a “landmark destination” for tourism in Victoria and the province as a whole, Horgan said.

The announcement comes less than two years after the BC government revealed plans to build a $200 million research and collections building for the museum in Colwood.

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