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Métis group eyes Riel House

Federation offers to help in funding

By: Mia Rabson

Tuesday, Jun. 19, 2012 at 8:26 AM | Comments: 0

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TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Riel House: interpreters needed?

OTTAWA -- The Manitoba Metis Federation is looking to take over operations of the Riel House National Historic Site.

MMF president David Chartrand told the Free Press Monday the MMF is working with the federal government to craft a plan.

"We sent a message we'd like to take over Riel House," he said. "Whatever the shortfall is, we will help."

About a month ago, Parks Canada officials informed the St. Boniface Historical Society its $56,000 annual contract to run programs at Riel House was not going to be renewed in 2013. The society has run the museum on behalf of Parks Canada since 1980.

Initially, it was feared the cuts meant Riel House was no longer going to be open to the public. However, Environment Minister Peter Kent stated emphatically in the House of Commons the museum was not closing.

"The house will remain open," he said on June 12.

The funding for the St. Boniface Historical Society is being cut and next year the museum will operate with self-guided tours rather than costumed interpreters. It's not clear what funding Parks Canada will provide to run Riel House or who, if anyone, will get the contract.

Chartrand said he isn't sure whether costumed interpreters are needed anymore. "Is it necessary to have interpreters sitting around waiting for someone to show up or do we rethink how we do this?" he said. "We need to put together a good business plan and we're asking the government to give us the chance to take it over."

St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover said she met June 15 with several interested groups, including the St. Boniface Historical Society, the MMF and the St. Vital Historical Society.

She said she is confident a plan will come together but doesn't know when the consultations, being led by Parks Canada, will conclude.

Riel House will be open as usual with costumed interpreters this summer.

Glover said she'd like to see a plan that would encourage visitors to take in all of the Riel historical offerings in Winnipeg, including his grave site at the St. Boniface Cathedral, artifacts at the St. Boniface Museum and the St. Vital Historical Society and Museum, and potentially, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights when it opens.

Riel House is one of 27 national historic sites nationwide where funding is being reduced and only self-guided tours will be available. York Factory and the St. Andrew's Rectory in Manitoba will also face cuts.

Visits to Riel House have fallen below 5,000 a year since Parks Canada instated an entrance fee three years ago.

Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton said she is glad groups such as the MMF are willing to step up but said it shouldn't let the government off the hook. "The fact is Louis Riel is a father of Confederation and the federal government should be picking up the tab," she said. "I don't think this would happen if we were talking about Mackenzie King or John A. MacDonald."

Two of the 27 sites on the list being cut back to self-guided tours only are Laurier House in Ottawa, which commemorates Liberal prime ministers Wilfred Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King, and the Sir Wilfred Laurier National Historic Site near Montreal.

But the Bellevue House National Historic Site, the Kingston, Ont., home of Canada's first prime minister, Conservative Sir John A. MacDonald, is not on the list and will remain funded for costumed interpreters.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

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