Provincial Budget Guts Nova Scotia Museum System, Putting Irreplaceable Heritage Buildings at Risk

This week, the Province of Nova Scotia announced plans to close twelve provincial museum sites. https://museum.novascotia.ca/blog/statement-department-communities-culture-tourism-and-heritage

The museums slated for closure, all located in rural Nova Scotia, are:

·       Cossit House, Sydney

·       Lawrence House, Maitland

·       McCulloch House, Pictou

·       Perkins House, Liverpool

·       Prescott House, Port Williams

·       Ross-Thomson House, Shelburne

·       Shand House, Windsor

·       Barrington Woolen Mill, Barrington

·       Sutherland Steam Mill, Tatamagouche

·       Wile Carding Mill, Bridgewater

·       Fisherman’s Life Museum, Jeddore Oyster Pond

·       North Hills Museum, Granville Ferry

As the provincial organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Nova Scotia’s built heritage, the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia is deeply concerned about the fate of the historic buildings in which all of these museums are housed. In the words of the Trust’s Executive Director, Emma Lang, “these buildings tell the unique social, cultural and industrial history of Nova Scotia and they make important economic contributions to their communities. These museum buildings were constructed long before most Nova Scotians alive today were born, and they should be here long after we are gone so that they can continue to educate current and future generations about the people and the events that shaped our province.

The Trust recognizes that the difficult economic climate in Nova Scotia requires sacrifices on the part of all sectors; however, we believe that implementing other cost-saving options would be preferable to taking the drastic measure of permanently closing these important sites.

While the Province has indicated its intent to “engage with local communities to explore options for future use of the buildings,” the Trust has serious concerns about the ability of local communities to assume the financial and managerial responsibilities for the maintenance and operation of these 12 provincial museum sites. Our major concern is that left unheated and without proper maintenance, these invaluable heritage assets will quickly fall into disrepair, said the Trust’s Chair, Andrea Arbic. “We believe that the Province of Nova Scotia accepted a fiduciary responsibility for these sites when it took on ownership of them. To simply close the sites with no plans in place for their care would be an abdication of that responsibility and a major loss for our province.