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RCMP Heritage Centre pushed for more outreach as part of expansion program | Globalnews.ca

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The pinnacle of the RCMP Heritage Centre in Saskatchewan says that after it accomplished a spherical of consultations on the way it can rework right into a nationwide museum, the ball is now in Ottawa’s courtroom.

“We actually wanted to listen to from Canadians,” stated Tara Robinson, the CEO of the Regina-based museum centered on the historical past of the Mounties.

“There’s by no means been a extra advanced time for policing in our nation,” she stated Friday.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised through the 2019 election marketing campaign that the Liberals would increase the RCMP Heritage Centre, which is presently operated by a charitable group, right into a nationwide establishment.

Involving a large swath of Canadians, together with from LGBTQ and Indigenous communities, in discussions about these efforts to develop was a key situation set by the federal Heritage Division, which oversees nationwide museums such because the Nationwide Gallery of Canada.

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Paperwork The Canadian Press obtained by way of access-to-information laws counsel there was some preliminary resistance to the scope of these consultations, though Robinson careworn that got here “actually early on within the course of.”

The back-and-forth about what it could take to create a nationwide RCMP museum is contained in roughly 600 pages of emails and different paperwork from 2020 and 2021.


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Situated on the grounds of the RCMP Academy’s Depot Division in Regina, the place Mounties obtain their coaching, the centre serves as a museum on the historical past of the nationwide police power, which started because the North-West Mounted Police in 1873.

“Proper now, the centre is frozen in time,” stated Robinson, including that reveals solely cowl occasions up till the Nineteen Seventies.

“We have to deal with residential faculties,” she stated. “We have to deal with the how the RCMP has developed.”

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The centre has spent years advocating to achieve nationwide museum standing, which might require the federal authorities to amend the Museums Act. Nationwide museums function as Crown Companies and have their working prices lined by Ottawa.


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In line with emails, federal officers estimated the method would take 18 to 24 months. However the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 stalled work on the file.

By the autumn, the centre inquired about progress, highlighting its objective to see its doorways open as a nationwide museum in 2023, coinciding with the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the RCMP.

The then-deputy minister of Canadian Heritage despatched a letter, the contents of which have been partially redacted, outlining the particular steps the centre should take to advance within the course of.

That included doing extra group engagement.

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“Whereas the RCMP have performed an essential function in our historical past, not all Canadians view the RCMP from the identical perspective,” wrote Helene Laurendeau, who has since retired.

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Steve McLellan, the centre’s board chair on the time, replied to say whereas the following steps had been clear, “I have to be aware the diploma of due diligence you define could be perceived by some to be undue hesitancy.”

He goes on to say that amongst different work it had accomplished, the centre had already collected round 4,400 responses by way of a survey, including the pandemic left the centre in dire monetary straights.

“A dedication was made and we imagine work have to be expedited to make this transition a actuality,” McLellan wrote.

Even earlier than the COVID-19 struck, paperwork present the centre, which sees round 20,000 guests per 12 months, was struggling. It introduced in $3.5 million in 2019, however spent $3.7 million.

Laurendeau wrote again in December 2020 saying due diligence was required to make sure any future museum would match with the Liberal authorities’s priorities, “together with selling gender equality, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, greening initiatives,” in addition to listening to numerous views.


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By February 2021, McLellan once more expressed concern in regards to the ask to do nationwide consultations with out a extra agency dedication from officers that the centre would in actual fact turn into a nationwide museum.

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“We can’t dictate a imaginative and prescient for a museum that may not exist and we’re not ready to hurry this course of or danger public backlash due to lack of federal help and applicable funding.”

He added the division’s actions amounted to a “roadblock” and the centre lacked the sources to do extra consultations “of the required scale or accountability Canadian Heritage has demanded.”

McLellan, who Robinson stated has since retired from the board, didn’t reply to emails requesting remark in time for publication.


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In the end, the federal authorities provided the centre $4.5 million in its spring 2021 funds. In late December, the centre printed a report on what it heard by way of a session course of that started in early 2022.

Murray Sinclair, who was the chair of the Reality and Reconciliation Fee, and Phil Fontaine, a previous nationwide chief of the Meeting of First Nations, had been amongst these the report stated had been interviewed in regards to the challenge and voiced help.

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“I wish to see Indigenous faces within the centre once I stroll in. Black faces. Feminine faces. Not a lineup of white males,” Sinclair stated, based on the doc.

Robinson, who turned the centre’s CEO in 2021, stated she agrees the preliminary survey was not ok. She stated the centre has since submitted its latest session outcomes in addition to a company plan to Canadian Heritage officers.

Robinson stated she believes it’s a “rock strong” plan for a policing museum that balances honouring the sacrifices of RCMP members, whereas “creating an area to have tough conversations.”

Getting nationwide standing by the top of the 12 months stays the “dream,” she stated, including the centre additionally intends to ask for capital funding and lift a few of the cash itself.

A spokeswoman for Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez didn’t present a timeline or say when an modification can be made to the Museums Act.

“Canadian Heritage officers are consulting with the RCMP Heritage Centre on an ongoing foundation,” Laura Scaffidi wrote in an electronic mail.



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