RBCM is not safe in earthquake

Victoria, British Columbia – A number of guests slowly stream in and out of the Royal British Columbia Museum as a fragile wind swirls around the queue.

Some have undoubtedly been drawn to the low $5 ticket price, resulting from the current closure of the museum’s third floor for a decolonization project. Some, like Jim and Brenda Beaver of Langley, British Columbia, say they wanted to see what they could before the museum closed its doors.

“When I heard about the cost of rebuilding it, I personally thought it was just as fine as it is now,” Brenda said. “And he closed it for eight years…We have grown children from Scotland who came and we didn’t have time to see her at the time, but we thought we’d get them back. Now we’re unlikely to be able to do that.”

Once those doors are closed, they are set to be hit with a wrecking ball.

Before the pandemic, the museum had 880,000 visitors a year. The demolition means that some of the prized exhibits harboring a deep nostalgia for many British Columbians will not be accessible, including a life-size woolly mammoth always complemented by throngs of wide-eyed children.

The decision has now put the museum itself at the center of a political battle, but officials say demolishing it is far better than a possible alternative – a devastating earthquake.

They plan to release a seismic report next week during a technical briefing detailing the risks of the existing building and saying the problems go beyond structural concerns.

The NDP government agrees that the museum is in poor condition and needs to be closed for eight years and rebuilt, an announcement unpopular with some in the county, in large part because of the project’s cost: the project costs $789 million. .

Add the cost of a secondary storage facility project that was also approved by the government, and the bill would be well over $1 billion.

One opponent is Kevin Falcone, the new leader in British Columbia of the opposition Liberal Party. In the first week after returning to the legislature after being elected leader of the official opposition, Falcone said the controversial announcement came at a good time to begin asking the prime minister questions about spending.

“Obviously it’s a gift,” he told the star. “It clearly shows how failing their priorities are, frankly, when, just in the Victoria area alone, we have literally 100,000 people who don’t have access to a family doctor.”

Falcone said he’s not against modernizing the old museum, which was built in 1967, but demolishing the “absolutely fine” building only to rebuild it is a waste.

“The fact that this government is going to shut it down with little or no consultation, and talk of spending a billion dollars to build some vanity museum projects for this prime minister, is unacceptable to me,” he said.

“No one asked for this.”

But a 2018 report on the building’s structure found it not quite as good, museum officials told The Star.

Kim Anderson, executive director of the Royal Museum in British Columbia Modernization Project, said WSP Canada had found seismic concerns from the structure that posed a risk to the public.

“They see some fundamental flaws in what we know about performance building today,” Anderson said, referring to the report. “The part of the building above the main floor will be more solid and respond differently in the event of an earthquake than the main floor, and it could end up being a disaster.”

Victoria is one of the most seismically active regions in Canada. Repairing the museum’s structural problems, she said, would involve stripping it of its underlying structure for examination, as well as fixing it to its bedrock, among other complex challenges.

Not only is it seismic issues, she said, the building also contains asbestos and paint containing lead and arsenic. Last year, during a catastrophic downpour in British Columbia, the museum was forced to close due to sewage water that inundated parts of it.

Doing such repairs, Anderson said, means removing all of the exhibits and relocating them.

Adding all the problems and what it would cost to upgrade the building and fix its problems, said Alicia Dubois, the museum’s chief executive, it makes sense to build a new museum.

“When you look at the risks to people, being an informed owner and understanding the risks to people is something that cannot be ignored,” Dubois said.

She added that museums are not only important educational facilities, but also serve economic functions as tourist attractions. A feasibility study for the museum will also be revealed next week.

Falcone referred to family physicians when highlighting the opportunity cost of the museum’s price because members of the Liberal opposition had been questioning the National Party government frequently about it during last month’s question period.

It’s a hot topic in the capital because the campaign led by Victoria area patient Camille Corrie has highlighted structural problems with medical bills in British Columbia that doctors say are responsible for choosing family doctors to do other types of work or leave the province. About 200 patients and doctors protested the issue in the legislature on Thursday.

Stuart Burst, professor of political science at Simon Fraser University, noted that the cost of rebuilding the museum could likely resurface on any number of issues of concern to British Columbians.

“The danger for the NDP here is that it doesn’t turn into one story but 100 stories, everyone has a very clear talking point or concern about what the government has prioritized over their own needs,” he said.

This may be particularly notable for parents who see the rebuilding of the museum rather than their children’s school, or a community waiting in a new hospital.

The long-term sustainability of this reaction depends on whether the NDP is able to find some support for the project – for example, through commitments to involve First Nations in every step of development, and the use of collective timber in construction, which could appeal to the logging industry mission in British Columbia.

But Burst is quite sure that the main reaction of the British Columbians will be sudden in the short term – not the complacent kind.

“It reminds me of the meme that says ‘Nobody, absolutely nobody,’” Burst said. It’s just, well, it’s just something we haven’t heard much about dyeing.”

And that really gives way to Falcone, who may be looking to lay down his message more than two years after the next general election.

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