Alan Holman - The Guardian March 10, 2007
acholman@pei.eastlink.ca
There’s a furious debate raging among the Island’s history and heritage buffs — where, oh where, should we store our artifacts?
Well, maybe calling it a debate is playing loose with the language.
It’s an argument over the location of a warehouse. Well, maybe it isn’t even an argument, maybe it’s more like a disagreement, a disagreement over a decision that, for all intents and purposes, has already been made.
It was a political decision, of this there is little doubt, or disagreement. But it’s a political decision that a goodly number (goodly in this case being 60-70) of Charlottetonians don’t like.
Actually there is only part of the decision they don’t like. The warehouse where the antique furniture, pot-bellied stoves, and numerous other artifacts are presently stored in Charlottetown leaks and is inadequate. There is agreement that it needs to be replaced. And the new building, before it is even built, has been given a fancy new classification. Warehouse is no longer good enough — now it’s an artifactory.
It seems this highfalutin warehouse will be located in Murray River, in the very heart of the premier’s own riding. After 10 years in power, Premier Binns has decided to move a government facility, and both jobs that go with it, from Charlottetown to Murray River. And it is going there because that’s the kind of sneaky, conniving, manipulative guy Pat Binns is. Bringing home the lolly for his constituents — well, two of them.
It is not as if the administrative offices of the Eastern School Board were going east, or he is moving all the provincial employees in the Jones Building to Beach Point.
It’s a warehouse and two jobs. And yes, it’s a given that people will have to go to Murray River to find things, but the roads are reasonably good and cars don’t break down like they used to.
It is hard to believe this is a crisis of such proportion that the Institute of Island Studies felt the need to organize a series of meetings to deal with it. As important as the artifactory is, it is not likely to have the same impact as the fixed link or changing the electoral system. Even if it does lead to a provincial museum being built in Murray River, which seems to be the root of the Charlottetonians’ fear, it won’t be the end of the Island as we know it.
Listening to the opposition voiced in the television report of a meeting in Charlottetown on Wednesday, one was reminded of the reports that emanated from Ottawa when word got out that the DVA headquarters was being moved to Charlottetown.
That, too, was a political decision. Politics is the art of the possible, of making things happen. The DVA move was strongly opposed by the management gurus in the civil service, by veterans organizations, by the senior levels of the mandarinate, local MPs and civic officials in Ottawa.
While there is no doubt many tax dollars are spent as departmental officials travel back and forth to Ottawa, there are also many tax dollars saved, because of the stability and efficiency of the workforce in Charlottetown.
In Ottawa, civil servants are constantly changing jobs, moving from one department to another. Sometimes, it’s for career advancement, often it is because the new job is closer to home and easier to get to. Whatever the reason, it creates employee turnover and the inefficiencies that result. This doesn’t happen to the same degree at the DVA headquarters, and employee turnover is not a problem at the tax centre in Summerside either.
The relocation of the artifactory is insignificant compared to moving the DVA, and it alone will have little impact on the economy of Murray River, unlike the millions that pour into Charlottetown every year.
On Wednesday, someone daydreamed on how the new artifactory could be expanded to house a provincial museum, a new provincial archives, a provincial art gallery, research space, exhibit space with constantly changing exhibits and a community meeting area. All of which might happen, someday.
But couldn’t any, or all, of those institutions be located outside the provincial capital? If researchers can travel from across Canada to the museums and National Archives in Ottawa, why can’t the students and aficionados of history and heritage across the Island go to a museum in Murray River?
Why is that anymore illogical than having the headquarters of a federal department located outside the national capital region?
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