The high-priced plan to replace the Royal British Columbia Museum is meeting backlash

2022-05-24T18:04:00-04:00

The momentum behind the proposed new Royal British Columbia Museum project said to be Canada’s most expensive in modern history appears to be slowing after Premier John Horgan’s recent announcement “landed with a thud” in political circles and the news media.

The Art Newspaper is reporting that the government’s updated plans to demolish the existing 1968 structure and replace it with a brand new design has levied a considerable amount of backlash in Victoria, British Columbia, where critics are taking a stand against the enormous costs of the project now five years in the making.

Labeled a “billion-dollar vanity project” by local Liberal Party leader Kevin Falcon, the currently $789 million CAD ($615.8 million USD) would author a full-scale modernization of the 135-year-old institution that would leave its doors closed until the year 2030. Horgan has said he laments the project’s newfound status as a “political football,” pointing desperately to its mass timber construction and new ...

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The high-priced plan to replace the Royal British Columbia Museum is meeting backlash