Questions for the Campaign Trail

With a provincial election underway, the policies of the various parties regarding a provincial museum for PEI are becoming a campaign issue for many Islanders.

If you happen to see anyone in the campaign mode perhaps the following questions would be appropriate.

The Legislative Assembly in 1983, created a provincial museum mandate, "to study, collect, preserve, interpret, and protect the human and natural history of Prince Edward Island for the use, benefit and enjoyment of the people of the province." Since then, many aspects of this mandate have not been fulfilled, especially in the natural history area and the development of exhibition space to interpret existing collections. Despite this, the Legislative Assembly adopts annually a report from the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation, with no mention of many of the activities mandated by the Museum Act.

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.

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.

Question 3
As 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.

Question 4
Many Islanders since 1880 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 ?