Island New Democrats - respond

ISLAND NEW DEMOCRATS

81 Prince Street, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4R3

Tel. 902 566 2266

ndppei@pei.aibn.com

DEAN CONSTABLE, Party Leader

Question 1
Please indicate what your government would do to ensure that Prince Edward Islanders have the active provincial museum as mandated by the Legislature, that will study, collect, preserve, interpret, and protect the human and natural history of Prince Edward Island, and that sufficient funds and facilities to carry out its mandate will be provided.

If I gain the confidence of a majority of voters and receive the privilege of representing the citizens of District 12 Charlottetown – Victoria Park, I will fight for a Provincial Museum that will serve all Islanders. This means I will work for highly skilled and appropriate staffing to deliver all the exciting educational opportunities that a comprehensive museum of the human culture and natural history of our Island presents. I will also work to ensure that our inner city kids make the very important connections with their history and their culture and the natural world around them. This is their right and I want to see our society invest in them.

Question 2
Please indicate what your government would do to ensure that Prince Edward Islanders have an opportunity to see both permanent and changing exhibitions of the current artifacts within the existing Provincial Collection.

I will personally study the large issue of Museums on Prince Edward Island and become familiar with the bigger picture and challenges that includes over 30 community museums across PEI. I will support the establishment of a comprehensive integrated Provincial museum facility of culture and natural history located in an area that is accessible without undue hardship for all community museums, adults and especially children across PEI. To ensure access to changing thematic exhibits and exhibits that tell the bigger Island Story I will be insisting that the PEI Museum Collection and the dedicated professionals hired to work with it be located within close proximity at one site, namely the Provincial Museum. I will work to identify community partners such as educational institutions – UPEI and Holland College for example.

Question 3
Museum development requires solid planning, please indicate what your government would do to ensure that Prince Edward Islanders have a provincial museum development plan that fulfills the mandate granted by the Legislature.

I will support an immediate moratorium on the old Conservative Government’s plan to place the Provincial Storage facility (Artifactory) in the Premier’s home riding of Murray River. I will insist upon a comprehensive planning process that focuses on the future of Heritage and Museums development in PEI. I see this as a planning process that is much larger than the current PEI Museum, that is inclusive of the heritage community as a whole, from tip to tip of PEI.

Question 4
Many Islanders since 1881 have called for a centrally-located, adequately-resourced provincial museum building to tell the Island story (including natural history), exhibit the Island collection, and also to serve the various branches community museums and education system by creating exhibits to tour the province. Do you support this vision of a solid hub that can provide strength to the various spokes of a decentralized museum system?

I support the concept of a strong and solid hub serving all the museums and their audiences across PEI. I also support the development of a strategy for public and private investment in the infrastructure of museums across PEI. Our museums are in our communities telling our stories for our residents and our visitors. There can be no better investment for our culture, our economy and our feeling good about ourselves and our communities than investing in our museums. The planning element I mentioned above must come first to ensure that investments are strategic.