Ghiz must keep promise on museum

Letter to the editor - The Guardian - July 4, 2007
EARLE LOCKERBY
Darnley

Editor:

I applaud the provincial government’s decision to rescind the plans of the Binns government to build a new artifactory at Murray River.

That being said, there remains a critical need for a new storage facility to house and safeguard, for future generations of Islanders, the province’s valuable collection of artifacts which constitute an important part of our heritage. Further ‘patching up’ of the existing facility, which has survived for many years on ‘patch-ups’ and was never designed to provide an adequate environment for the artifacts, can be only a very short-term, temporary measure.

A new artifactory needs to be planned for, and realized, in conjunction with a new provincial museum, and in my view, both should be located in the Charlottetown area and as close together as reasonably possible.

Premier Ghiz has recently made much of the fact that our province is the only one without a passport office. It is also the only province without a provincial museum. True, we do have a number of small, ‘theme’ museums scattered across the Island. Like the spokes and rim of a wheel, these facilities perform a useful service, but what is missing is the hub — a provincial museum. Adequately storing our artifacts is important, but equally important is showcasing them to Islanders and to visitors to our province. Currently, the vast majority of the provincial collection never, or rarely, sees the light of day because we have inadequate facilities in which to display the artifacts and in which to comprehensively interpret the Island’s rich heritage and culture.

A major new display facility — a centrally located provincial museum — along with an integrated new artifactory, are sorely needed in this province. During the recent election campaign, Premier Ghiz promised Islanders a new provincial museum. Islanders expect him to keep his promise.