The B.C. government, citing a "difficult time" for the economy, has pulled its financial support for the National Maritime Centre in North Vancouver, prompting the city to scuttle the ambitious mix of museum and community centre that would have celebrated the province's maritime history.
Tuesday's announcement, met with shock by North Vancouver, appears to cancel a project with federal support that would have showcased historical artifacts and featured interactive exhibits, business forums and boat festivals. It also would have offered restaurants and shops on the city's waterfront.
The centre was to replace the 50-year-old Vancouver Maritime Museum in Kitsilano, absorbing that institution's exhibits, including the St. Roch, an RCMP schooner that was the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America.
"It would have been a national attraction in an A-one spot," Darrell Mussatto, North Vancouver's Mayor, said of the stalled maritime centre.
But now only a public groundswell of support could resurrect the project; the city's council has done all it can to advance the project - one of the most ambitious in the city's history, he said.
"We're pretty devastated, shocked by this," Mr. Mussatto said, noting the city would probably lose in a fight to push the province to reverse a decision.
"I don't think there's a big appetite for council to continue to try to seek the funding for this. We've done five years. We're at the end of our rope. We have done everything possible to try to secure the funding."
He said city staff are now scrambling to figure out what to do next.
"We had no Plan B."
With much fanfare, including a 2008 announcement by Premier Gordon Campbell, the province put up $9-million in funding, and was expected to contribute an additional $20-million to $25-million in capital costs for the 110,000-square-foot centre.
The federal government pledged $20-million in funding, contingent on provincial support. It was not immediately clear Tuesday how Ottawa would now proceed.
B.C. Culture Minister Kevin Krueger wrote in a letter to the mayor that the province views the project as "very desirable" but simply cannot afford it.
"In the current economic climate, the magnitude of the funding requested is far in excess of an amount that could be accommodated within the provincial budget, now or in the foreseeable future," he wrote.
"I truly regret that the provincial government is unable to support this project, and hope that other means will be found to fund this project."
Craig Beattie, president of the board of trustees of the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society, said his board executive will meet this week to consider its options, which could include a focus on bolstering the current museum in Kitsilano.
James Delgado, a former director of Vancouver's maritime museum who helped develop the idea of the new centre, said the current space has been too small and the location too isolated from the public.
He said Tuesday that the centre had been an inevitable necessity, but that its development had dragged on long enough to kill it.
"I was afraid something like this would happen, given that it had been taking so long," said Mr. Delgado, president and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology based in Bodrum, Turkey.
"[I'm]heartsick, absolutely heartsick."
He suggested the current maritime museum is not up to the job, with the St. Roch in "an inadequate building that gets patched together, that will not adequately protect it over time."
Mr. Krueger was not available for comment.
Ian Bailey