The new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia planned for the Halifax waterfront is on hold.
Premier Tim Houston said his government had decided the project should be “paused indefinitely” due to rising costs. Construction was slated to begin later this year.
“The commitment at the right time, at the right budget remains,” Houston told reporters at Province House Wednesday. “And the placement of it will be the same.”The cost of this is out of control right now.”
The new gallery was expected to cost about $137 million when it was announced three years ago. But the province says it now expects that figure to increase by $25 million or more with inflation and rising construction costs. That was based on a re-evaluation of the costs by the construction firm Ellis Don.
The Premier’s office provide a one-page summary of those increased costs but refused to publicly release the full assessment.
According to that “July 2022 High Level Estimate”, the project would cost $162,594,778 rather than the “2020 control budget” of $136,594,928, a $25,855,850 difference.
Houston suggested that figure was the minimum increase in the price tag and that the new gallery could cost a lot more than that by the time it was ready to open.
“I’m a believer in the arts, believer in this project at the right price,” said Houston Wednesday. “It’s not the right time to proceed.”
Disappointment, understanding
Grant Machum, acting chair of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), said he heard the news Tuesday evening. He said the premier asked to meet with him around 5:15 p.m.
“It was disappointing, but it was explained to us … there’s too much uncertainty to go ahead with the project as it was currently set up,” Machum said.
Machum said the board has reached out to those involved like the capital campaign council and major donors since becoming aware of the higher cost of the project.
A rendering of the proposed new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on the Halifax waterfront is shown. (Norm Li/KPMB Architects)
“They all understand that we’re in a different world right now,” he said. “Everyone wants the gallery and it’s just a matter of timing.”
He said he doesn’t know when the project could go ahead. He thinks next year might be a possibility.
A rendering of the inside of the planned art gallery is shown. (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia/Twitter)
“But currently, the prices to build are very high,” he said.
He said Sarah Fillmore, the AGNS acting director and CEO, has agreed to stay in her role until the fate of the gallery is clearer.
Opposition reactions
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Nova Scotia’s cultural sector has been hit “harder than most” during the pandemic.
“We understand that we are in an inflationary moment and in a cost-of-living crisis,” Chender said, noting that $137 million for an art gallery “may be difficult for people to stomach.”
She said she hopes the premier is both determining a better use for the millions that were supposed to be spent on the new building, but also finding a way to accommodate the cultural sector.
Claudia Chender is the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP. (Robert Short/CBC)
Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said the decision will be “a disappointment” for those involved in the project.
Zach Churchill is the leader of the Nova Scotia Liberals. (Robert Short/CBC)
“Our real question right now is, ‘What happens with the savings? How are those funds deployed?'” Churchill said. “That’s something that the government has not indicated.”
Like Chender, Churchill pointed to cost-of-living issues and health care as potential areas for more funding. He said he wants to know if inflation will impact any other infrastructure projects, like new schools and the Halifax Infirmary redevelopment.
“Of course we want to have a healthy, robust arts and culture economy,” he said. “To assess this decision, we have to first know where those funds are going to be deployed.”
The project was originally announced in April 2019, with the province committing $70 million to the project. The federal government pledged $30 million and Halifax Regional Municipality said it would put up $7 million.
The Donald R. Sobey Foundation and the Sobey Foundation announced a $10 million pledge in November 2020.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
