Gail Asper and the Temple of Gloom: drilling holes

I was wondering about this ... The site of the future Canadian Museum for Human Rights was sitting idle for years, and then one day they moved in cranes and started drilling big holes in the ground. "Gee, that seems like an odd way to do an archaeological exploration of a site" I thought to myself. Everybody was so concerned about what might be in the ground under the proposed apartment building near the Upper Fort Garry site, yet here at the Forks we're just punching holes in the ground like a kid in a sandbox with a stick in his hand.

Apparently I wasn't the only one wondering why they're not bothering to do a proper archaeological assessment of the site. According to the Free Press story today, some archaeologists are asking similar questions. Maybe the museum folks are rushing to get construction past the point of no return before the whole project falls apart because of cost overruns. Or maybe the tedious process of digging up artifacts is simply too time consuming.

I also wondered why First Nations leaders were not up in arms about giant holes being punched in a site that may very well contain important Indian artifacts or even remains of their ancestors. Perhaps they are just very anxious to have their woeful story of abuses and neglect told in the museum for all to see. I suspect that story will not include anything about the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs giving $1,000,000 to one of the richest families in Canada rather than fixing the dilapidated houses and infrastructure in their communities.

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update: I wrote that the site "was sitting idle" but that's not quite accurate. There was in fact a dig last year that found a few things. Still I wonder how much was really know about what's laying in the ground under this site with that limited study. If this were a privately-funded development instead of the museum, I suspect there would be more concern about it.

Another week, another $100 million bucks

It seems as though the day after I left the U of M, they started to fix everything. Nothing happened while I was actually enrolled, but then I leave and suddenly Smart Park springs up out of an empty field, the engineering building is torn down and rebuilt, a brand spanking new residence is built, a parkade goes up .... and they're just getting going. Recently they've requested proposals for a hotel on the site of the Smart Park, and this week Project Domino was revealed:

Retiring University of Manitoba president Emoke Szathmary unveiled a $100-million-plus legacy project Wednesday that will change the face of the Fort Garry campus.

All told, 13 faculties and departments will be affected by the massive undertaking.

The big question of course: where is the money going to come from?

"Of course, there's an expectation government would participate," said (Education Minister) McGifford. "I don't think I want to talk about that today." [*]

Maybe the government is finally getting a little tired of all of these people grabbing for tax dollars?

It seems that every time you watch the news or open the paper there is another request for government money. The standard operating procedure is to announce the plan first then request the money second -- create some fancy conceptual drawings and a flashy web site, then wage a PR campaign to suck money out of the government. You are all familiar with some of the recent examples:

• Upper Fort Garry ($9m)
• The new Blue Bombers stadium ($80m)
  
• and of course the grand-daddy of them all: The Museum for Human Rights ($160m plus $22m per annum for operating costs plus free land and property taxes)
  

In a way, I think Gail Asper's success in securing government support for the Museum has set a precedent for the PR-driven MO that seems to be used to get funding these days. I'll call it the "Apser Effect", if you will.

I'm not saying that I oppose the U of M Domino plan ... in fact I think our Universities are tremendously important and we should invest in them. I just question the methodology of releasing your plan to the pubic first and then pressuring the government for money through the media. Is this how they do things in other cities, or is this Asper Effect our own little quirky way of doing business around here?