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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Rights museum overlooks $5-M cost
Annual levy equivalent to municipal taxes
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is considered a national facility.
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OTTAWA -- It's a whopping $5-million annual bill that officials with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights never realized they'd have to pay.
The future national museum based in Winnipeg will be required to pay municipal taxes -- something officials missed when calculating the museum's annual operating expenses.
"Unlike private museums, national museums, under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act, are required to pay to municipalities an amount equivalent to municipal and school taxes," a report, tabled Thursday in the House of Commons, said.
The museum estimates it will be required to pay more than $5 million a year -- one-quarter of its projected operating budget.
The report -- which is an interim business plan from the museum itself -- noted the federal government has agreed to provide $21.7 million in annual operating funding for two years based on the estimates provided to the government by museum organizers.
But after that estimate was approved, officials realized the figure didn't take into account the fact the museum is a national facility and therefore must make a payment in lieu of taxes to the City of Winnipeg.
"The museum will be looking for ways to resolve this significant financial challenge," the report said.
Angela Cassie, spokeswoman for the museum, said the museum's board and operating officers are having "really dynamic conversations" about the issue.
"We're in ongoing discussions with the provincial and federal governments to manage it," she said.
Earlier this month, museum officials revised the annual operating expense figure to $27.2 million.
Cassie said additional sources of revenue will be found once the museum opens its doors in three years -- ticket sales and gift shop revenues, for example.
The report also notes the cost of building the museum is vulnerable to inflation.
For every month the building contract tender is delayed, inflation will boost the cost of the project by $1.25 million, requiring either more capital or a scaling back of the plans.
Cassie said right now the museum is meeting all its construction targets and said 76 per cent of the building contracts and related costs will be met by June and 89 per cent by November.
The current cost projection of the museum and exhibits is $265 million. The federal government will provide $100 million, the province will put in $40 million and the City of Winnipeg will contribute $20 million.
Private donations will cover the remaining $105 million.
Currently, the museum is about $3 million shy of that goal.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 27, 2009 A5
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