By Holly Cheung
Taxpayers will suffer the consequences of relocating the future Portrait Gallery of Canada, says Ottawa Centre’s MP.
“Moving the gallery doesn’t make financial sense or cultural sense. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Paul Dewar says of the federal government’s plan to move the portrait gallery to another city.
The private sector that bids for the gallery will cover some costs, leading to a short-term decrease in the spending of tax dollars.
However, the cost of transport and human resources will lead to a long term increase in spending, says Dewar, adding that the cost of all the extra curators’ salaries would waste tax dollars.
Dewar says the gallery should be in Ottawa for cultural reasons. “If you look to the UK, France and USA, they all have their national galleries in their capital.”
Kathleen O’Neill Cole, the architect of the cancelled site, says it’s a pity the gallery will not sit across from Parliament Hill. Tourists could easily have visited the Portrait Gallery, National Gallery and Museum of Civilization on foot.
The nine cities that can bid for the gallery have minimum populations of 350,000. The bidding process will pit Canadians against Canadians, Dewar says.
“Historically important towns are also being ignored, such as Charlottetown. Vancouver is allowed to bid. But Victoria is not. This is not fair.”
Dewar says if the gallery moves west, this would be an example of pork-barrel politics.
“Prime Minister Steven Harper knows people in Calgary, and that’s why he wanted to move it out there.”
Moving the gallery to Alberta would also decrease the number of visitors, according to O’Neil Cole. “Not many people venture out West,” she says.
The Portrait Gallery collection consists of 20,000 paintings and four million photographs. The size of the holdings raises concern about protecting the art during transportation.
“Travelling art risks being damaged. It is like someone getting into a car. You don’t know whether you’re going to get into an accident,” says Christine Feniack, chief of technical services at the National Gallery of Canada. Portrait Gallery curators declined to comment on the possible move.
Concerns by some that moving the gallery will affect the local arts scene, were downplayed by the editor of Guerilla, an Ottawa art magazine.
“The gallery should have added to the city’s landscape, but losing it will not hinder the development of culture at the grassroots level,” says Tony Martins.
Dewar says there is no positive side to the relocation. The only good thing that could happen now is if the Conservatives change their mind again.
“They have changed their mind twice already. Maybe they will change their minds again,” he says.