Editor:
I am writing to share some additional knowledge of what Bill C-38 will mean to Canada. We know of the threat to our environment and safety (e.g. Coast Guard station closures). But did you know that much of our cultural heritage is also at risk? Several Parks Canada regional interpretive centres are to be closed or downsized, and local collections sent to Ottawa.
As heard through the employee grapevine, the official word is that all collections (curatorial and archaeological) and all (remaining) conservators and collections specialists will eventually be consolidated in Ottawa/Gatineau. No word on what the time line is for "eventually."
Everything, including collections, will be shipped to Ottawa for long-term central storage. That's it. No more service centres - just Ottawa. Why isn't the national media on this story?
Not that there is official word (because secrecy seems to be a particular strategy of this government), but it appears that across the country, from Newfoundland's L'anse aux Meadows to our own Fort Langley and Gulf of Georgia Cannery, collections are to be packed up and shipped to Ottawa. No need (or possibility) to see our history in situ; in future, we and our children will have the privilege of viewing our local heritage in the context of the entire Canadian empire. But only when we travel to Ottawa's Parliament Hill to see "democracy" in action.
As posted on the Canadian Archae-ological Association Facebook page recently: "There [will be] more people employed in a single Tim Hortons than are employed by Parks Canada nationally to preserve and care for millions of archeological historic objects in storage and on display."
Rebecca Pavitt
Sechelt
