Nunavut heritage centre put on hold

Nunavut’s long-promised heritage centre has been put on hold indefinitely, as the territorial government says it simply can't afford the project.

Finance Minister Keith Peterson said MLAs decided last spring to cancel the project for now. $7 million allocated in the budget for planning the heritage centre will be redirected to other projects. These changes were officially made to the capital budget last week.

"When you plan these projects, they can become quite costly, depending on what your requirements are, and the estimates were coming in way too high for this government," said Peterson.

"The estimates were over $100 million just for that building alone and our annual capital budget for the Government of Nunavut is in the neighbourhood of $100 million to $120 million a year.

"It’s just too expensive for us with all the other priorities that we have in terms of housing, health centers, airports and schools, community halls and fuel tank farms."

Plans for a Nunavut heritage centre date back to the second legislative assembly. Two years ago Premier Eva Aariak's government promised to start construction by 2013.

The centre was intended to store and display artifacts belonging to Nunavut that are currently housed outside the territory.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que., is waiting to return artifacts to Nunavut from its collection, as is Yellowknife's Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, which has held an estimated 100,000 artifacts that belong to Nunavut since division in 1999. That accounts for more than half of the collection at the Yellowknife museum.

The agreement between Nunavut and the Prince of Wales museum to store the artifacts expires in March 2012.

James Arreak, minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, said Nunavut would like to keep those artifacts at the Prince of Wales for the time being and his department has asked for an extension to the storage agreement. He said the decision to cancel the heritage centre will not affect the repatriation of human remains from museums outside the territory.

The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement commits the government to preserving Inuit culture and artifacts in Nunavut, said Luke Suluk, president of Inuit Heritage Trust.  

"It’s costing our government a lot of money to keep them in those places down south, in Ottawa and Yellowknife, and they have to keep making agreements to store those artifacts," said Suluk.

Suluk said the government should consider its options.

"We need a place, at least a warehouse where artifacts can be stored and built up eventually so artifacts can be displayed and used for educational purposes. I think IHT can come up with some options to at least start building up from there."