Mr. Harper must finish his project

The Harper government appears to have fallen out of love with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, but it can't abandon its responsibilities that easily. The Conservatives entered into this marriage willingly and with full knowledge that complex projects inevitably run over budget.

In April 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Winnipeg to announce the Conservatives were embracing the museum as a federal project. It would be a national museum, the first outside Ottawa, and operated by the federal government as a Crown corporation.

The government subsequently assumed complete control of the project, hiring its first employee, chief financial officer Patrick O'Reilly, and appointing the board of directors and its first CEO, former Manitoba Progressive Conservative leader Stuart Murray.

These officials, and others who came later, were selected without consultation with those who had earlier been struggling to get the project off the ground. Ottawa was in charge.

In 2008, the government announced the entire development was under review, including Antoine Predock's architectural design. All tendering would be through the federal government, and budgets would be scrutinized by bean counters in Ottawa.

At that time, the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the private fundraiser led by Gail Asper, committed to raising $105 million in private capital, while the province and city were in for a total of $60 million. Ottawa's $100 million contribution meant the total budget was now $265 million.

Last April, the Friends met their target and fulfilled their promise. By then, however, the budget had risen to $310 million. The fundraisers agreed to make up the difference and today they are about $20 million short of that goal, an enormous achievement.

But now the museum's staff says it needs $41 million more before it can open. Incredibly, Ottawa says the shortfall is somebody else's problem.

The overruns are partly related to unanticipated construction problems, including unstable bedrock where the piles were installed, and the constantly rising cost of the technologies that will be used inside the museum. These overruns are no one's fault and were to be expected in this unprecedented, one-of-a-kind project that has never been attempted anywhere in the world. The building alone has been described as the most complex construction project in North America.

But it could take the Friends four or five years to raise the final $60 million, meaning it could be 2016 before the doors open. The costs of maintaining an empty building and its staff are not cheap, either.

The fact is it is Mr. Harper's responsibility to finish the museum by providing the last $41 million. It's Canada's museum and his reputation that are at risk, not the Asper family's, as some backbiters like to claim. It also seems wrong that Ottawa won't even offer bridge financing to allow the museum to open on schedule in 2013. The operating grant of $22 million a year is also on the low side compared to other national museums with a lesser purpose.

It seems more likely, however, that the three levels of government and the Friends will each share in the burden, with the city and province possibly giving up their property taxes. That is the best political solution, and it should be done sooner than later.

The human rights museum deserves special consideration because it will be a Canadian icon, a bricks-and-mortar representation of Canada's defining values. It is not simply a museum, but an educational institution -- a university, if you like -- that is committed to elevating humanity one person at a time. It's a place where people will be motivated to do better and to engage in current events, to be better citizens, to get out and vote.

Mr. Harper, it's not too late to renew the vows you made four years ago and create one of the most important legacies of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Original Article
Source: Winnipeg Free Press