Royal Alberta Museum Renovations (April 19)
Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For years this government has been planning to renovate and expand the Royal Alberta Museum, but now all the hard work, imagination, creativity, and money that has been put into this project has been wasted as architects have been forced back to the drawing board.
My question to the Premier: does the Premier show appreciation for arts and culture in Alberta by scrapping plans to turn the Royal Alberta Museum into a celebrated cultural symbol?
Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, once again wrong information. This government has not scrapped any plans to refurbish or build a new museum. In fact, we’re working feverishly, trying to finish the planning. This is a massive, massive project. It does require great detail in the construction, so we’re certainly following up on it. Any other detail in terms of the planning the minister responsible can answer.
Mr. Agnihotri: Mr. Speaker, the Premier claims that his government is open, transparent, accountable. If that is actually true, can the minister explain why senior staff working on the project were directed by this government to keep quiet about the design and delays?
Mr. Goudreau: Mr. Speaker, we certainly have not stopped the project at all. We’re trying to be responsible. We initially had committed about $180 million to this project. Last fall we added another $20 million to the project. We recognize that the tenders and the amounts are coming up slightly higher than $200 million, and we’ve directed our people to work within the $200 million budget. Two hundred million are significant dollars, and certainly we’re just trying to be responsible and work within the budgets that we have.
Mr. Agnihotri: Well, why didn’t you inform the public? My question to the Premier again. Funding for this expansion was supposed to be a partnership with the federal government. Did the Premier request extra funding from the federal government, their own cousins, to help cover the additional costs of the expansion before cancelling it, or is this another example of this government’s firewall against Ottawa?
Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, we’re talking about cousins and relatives. I’m sure that our cousins in Ottawa are still dealing with the issues, the work left by the cousins of those across the floor, so we’ll be debating cousins and relatives for quite a while. But all I can assure you is that we’re moving on this project. It’s critical – we’re into our second century as a province of Alberta; we have such a tremendous wealth of artifacts and good information – so that we give that to the next generation so that they can be equally proud of their province of Alberta.
Alberta Hansard, April 19, 2007