Measures pushed to rid museum board of politics

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This article was published 07/10/2015 (3683 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights ought to be appointed based on merit, not political ties, and the government should have no say in museum content, say two top Manitoba election candidates.

“The minister of heritage should not be the curator of the museum,” said Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Pat Martin. “A well-curated museum is only telling the truth. We should neither shy away nor apologize for the facts.”

Martin said if the NDP forms government Oct. 19, it would push for the creation of an arm’s-length appointments watchdog similar to the one Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in 2006. The Public Appointments Commission was meant to reduce patronage in federal appointments to boards, museums, Crown corporations and other agencies. But the opposition balked at the man Harper named to head it — Alberta oilman Gwyn Morgan, a well-known Tory and friend of Harper’s. The opposition blocked the appointment and the commission fizzled.

Both the current and former chairs of the museum board have close ties to the Conservative party, and the museum’s first CEO, Stuart Murray, was the former leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative party.

The museum, which opened last fall over-budget and after several delays, is the first national museum to be built outside Ottawa. Since the project began, staff turnover has been high, and allegations have emerged the board meddled in the museum’s content and tone.

Meanwhile, the museum is about to approach Ottawa with a new request for multi-year operating funding. This year, Ottawa granted the museum $21.7 million and another $2 million came from admissions, rentals and other revenue. The next funding agreement will be complicated by the fact that, in 2018-19, the museum must begin repaying a $35-million advance.

Another lingering issue is the museum’s outstanding payment to the city for municipal services, its grant in lieu of property taxes. After much wrangling, the city and the federal government recently settled the bill for the 2010 and 2011 tax years. Four more years are outstanding, in part because the city and Ottawa can’t agree on the value of the building. The matter is before an advisory panel, a process that is somewhat beyond the reach of politicians, but the city is $6.8 million in the hole while the parties duke it out.

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Winnipeg South Centre Liberal candidate Jim Carr said the idea of a public appointments commission to ensure an independent museum board is worth looking at.

“Conceptually, the idea has merit,” he said, adding it’s up to professionally trained staff to manage even controversial exhibits. “It’s not the job of government to determine content.” Three candidates, all contenders to become Manitoba’s regional minister should their party form government, praised the museum, and all made commitments to champion adequate operating funding. Both Martin and Carr said Winnipeg could become an international centre of excellence for human rights, with the museum as the backbone. Carr noted his party’s pledge to boost arts and culture funding.

Portage-Lisgar Conservative MP and minister of state for social development Candice Bergen said she would be a proud advocate of the museum.

She said her government has a “very rigorous process in place” to vet appointments to boards. “All our appointments are already based on merit. On that, I probably wouldn’t take any lessons from Pat Martin.”

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca