Ottawa nixes plans for the Portrait Gallery of Canada

By James Bradshaw
The government has cancelled plans to build a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada, a move that is likely to anger members of the arts community who slammed the federal Tories during the recent election campaign over cuts to cultural programs.
Citing the uncertain economic conditions, James Moore, newly appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, announced yesterday evening that after years of stops and starts and squabbles, the selection process to grant the new gallery to one of three competing cities has been cancelled.
"A number of developers submitted proposals to house the public programming and exhibitions of the Portrait Gallery of Canada," Mr. Moore said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, none of these proposals met the government's requirements, and we are therefore terminating the selection process.

"In this time of global economic instability, it is important that the federal government continue to manage its own affairs prudently and pragmatically."

He refused to say what was wrong with the proposals due to "confidentiality requirements."
Mr. Moore's statement was released after 5 p.m. yesterday to the ire of NDP MP Paul Dewar, who for years has spearheaded efforts to build the gallery a home in Ottawa.
"Here it is, the classic a-quarter-to-six release on Friday. Obviously they're not too proud of this decision," Mr. Dewar said.
Many in the cultural community fear the Conservative government is targeting the arts since nearly $45-million in cuts to cultural programs were revealed in August.
A deluge of criticism from artists such as Margaret Atwood put the Tories on the defensive during the election campaign, protesting that they had in fact increased arts spending overall - a refrain Mr. Moore repeated yesterday.
His economic rationale echoes Prime Minister Stephen Harper's defence of the earlier cuts as responsible fiscal management. But Mr. Harper's refusal to reconsider his decision, and divisive comments he made about the disdain "ordinary working Canadians" have for artists who attend publicly funded "rich galas" may ultimately have cost him dearly in Quebec and denied him his coveted majority government.
The Liberal government had planned to house the portrait gallery in the former U.S. embassy, across the street from Parliament Hill. But the project was delayed, and then abandoned after the Conservatives took office in 2006, with the Tories citing ballooning costs and a desire to use the site instead as a reception centrefor the government. That plan was scrapped after fierce public opposition.
After a failed attempt to build a gallery in Calgary in partnership with Epcor, the Tories unveiled an unorthodox bidding process that allowed developers from nine Canadian cities to submit bids to build the gallery and then lease or sell it to the government, provided they could demonstrate substantial backing from the city.
Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton submitted the only bids, which the selection committee today rejected. The Alberta government had earmarked $40-million for projects that would bring the gallery to the province.
Opposition to moving the national portrait gallery outside Ottawa had been strong, led by Mr. Dewar and Liberal senators Jerry Grafstein and Serge Joyal. They said that the collection is currently in a specially outfitted Gatineau warehouse, and annual transport costs would have been substantial, especially because the Conservatives had cancelled the government art transportation program.
Opposition forces also accused the Tories of wastefulness as an estimated $11-million had already been spent on the embassy site.
Mr. Moore said in an interview last night that his government did not feel it prudent to embark on a project that could cost "in the neighbourhood of $100-million." But part of the rationale for abandoning the U.S. embassy site was that projected costs had ballooned to $45-million, a figure the Conservatives argued then was too high.
Mr. Dewar scoffed at Mr. Moore's $100-million estimate.
"You can play around with numbers all you want. Does he have an actual bona fide study to show that?" he said.