Beleaguered museum appeals to public
Ottawa wants to sell or lease the waterfront property at market valueBy Jennifer Pritchett
Local News - Saturday, January 20, 2007 Updated @ 11:20:45 PM
With its future in limbo, the Marine Museum is appealing to the public for help.
The museum’s board of trustees has started a petition to gain public support for efforts to secure a long-term lease that would allow the museum to stay at its downtown location on Kingston’s waterfront.
Mark Siemons, chairman of the board, said the facility is ideally situated on the shores of Lake Ontario as Canada’s only museum dedicated to preserving the maritime history of the Great Lakes and there is no desire to leave. The museum also includes the former Canadian Coast Guard ship Alexander Henry, which is docked alongside.
"We have no idea where we’d go [if evicted]," he said.
The Marine Museum has called 55 Ontario St., the former Kingston Shipyards and Dry Dock, home since 1977 when the City of Kingston negotiated a lease with the federal government’s Public Works Department, the owner of the property. Since then, the municipality has acted as the property manager of the site, leasing it to the Marine Museum.
That lease expires on Nov. 29, 2007.
Renewing the agreement is complicated by the fact that the federal government has deemed the building that houses the museum as surplus. This means that Ottawa wants to sell or lease the property at market value.
Currently, the City of Kingston leases it from the federal government for $1 and then sublets it to the museum for the same price.
Denis Leger, the city bureaucrat in charge of property leases, said the municipality is still negotiating with Ottawa and has requested a three-year extension to the current lease at the existing rates. This would give the city time, he said, to continue looking into what’s involved with acquiring the property from the federal government.
"At this point in time, the ball is in the court of the federal government," Leger said. "We are hopeful it can be resolved."
Leger said that if the federal government were to extend the lease with market rates, it could cost in excess of $100,000 to lease the museum property. He hopes to hear a response from the federal government in the near future.
"I know this doesn’t give peace of mind to the museum people, but staff are working on the issue," he said.
In a letter from Public Works Canada to the museum chairman dated Dec. 19, 2006, the government indicated that it is still negotiating with the City of Kingston on the museum lease renewal and other possible land transfers, but declined to comment on specifics.
However, Vija Poruks, Ontario regional director general of Public Works Canada, also states in the letter that the government remains hopeful it can reach an agreement with the city that "wouldn’t require the relocation of the museum.
"If we are unsuccessful in reaching an agreement with the city, you can be assured that we will fully consider the significant impact on the museum and endeavour to accommodate your timing requirements," the letter states.
With the clock ticking, the museum board chairman and the rest of the members are getting nervous.
To make matters worse, said Siemons, the conditions of the museum’s agreement with the city requires them to have a contingency exit plan for the Alexander Henry, just in case the lease isn’t renewed.
He said this is very stressful for the board members and that he was "not sure why we’re being pushed into leaving when nothing has been finalized."
Siemons said that not having a lease has also caused another problem for the museum: the museum has been unable to secure funding from various sources, such as the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The museum’s annual budget is $410,000, of which roughly $60,000 comes from the city and the rest from admissions and fundraising.
"Why is anyone going to fund us when we could get kicked out?" said Siemons.
The board has also enlisted the help of Senator Hugh Segal and Kingston and the Islands MP Peter Milliken to plead its case at the federal government level.