CMHR Part 2: Fund Raising (Where to find $10m)

There has been a lot written about the cost overruns and fundraising woes of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. So much so that I'm beginning to think there's a problem. For example:

the museum's new interim chairman and its president also posted a letter on its website, confirming the construction budget had climbed to $351 million, a jump of $45 million, and they are looking to the private sector to make up the difference.

Looking to the private sector for money in an economy that's disproportionately public sector might be a tough proposition. There is not an abundance of ultra-wealthy execs and entrepreneurs in Winnipeg. As an indicator: we only have six CEOs of publicly traded companies in "the 7-figure club". We have only two people or families on Canada's Rich 100 list -- at positions 14 and 98.

We are lucky to have some rich and very generous individuals in this city, but we are asking an awful lot from them. I can't speak for all them rich folk, I'll let their personal speakers do that, but if I were a multi-millionaire business owner in this city I would feel a bit like a tourist in Tijuana.

Certainly I want the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to succeed, I really do, but there are so many other worthy causes as well like hospitals, universities, and zoos and whatever else. If I were a Hartley Richardson or Paul Giesbrecht, would the CMHR make my list?

There is also no way that average peeps like you and I will make up the shortfall. I can give a few hundred bucks to a place like Siloam Mission and make a real difference, whereas that money would only be a drop in an ever-growing bucket if I gave it to CMHR, so guess where I'm going to put my money? There are literally hundreds of causes I could give to where I'd feel like I'm making a real difference.

What this comes down to is donor fatigue. There are too places for a benefactor or donor to put their money, and there simply is not enough money to go around. Especially for a project where the 'ask' is in the tens of millions of dollars, and rising. So, although you may scoff at my next suggestion, I think we need to give it serious consideration....

How to instantly raise $10 million for the CMHR

There is a pool of pre-donated and unused money right now, as we speak, sitting somewhere in Winnipeg. $10.3 million dollars. The money was raised for the Upper Fort Garry Heritage Park and Interpretive Centre.

Right now you're thinking there he goes again -- whining about Upper Fort Garry, but let's think about this:

> The Upper Fort Garry park and heritage site is still nothing more than a website and diorama. There is no sunk cost. Construction has not started. If you go there and look at it you will see absolutely nothing but a flat surface of concrete and rubble.
> The project still requires another $10 million to build ... and that's a pre-construction cost estimate. If, like with CMHR, costs escalate after shovels hit ground, it could be more. (In fact there was already a reference to $12 million in the paper but I lost the link.)

Where is that $10 million+ going to come from? Who on earth is going to have that kind of change kicking around to contribute to a giant traffic-accident-causing holographic fort and Louis Riel shrine after all the relentless fundraising and arm twisting to bail out the CMHR? Even if you like what the Friends of Upper Fort Garry have put together, it's hard to imagine them meeting their fund raising goals on the generosity of the private sector.

So I say, let's focus on the big project. The one that has the biggest impact, the most potential, and is already half complete. Divert the money there and scrap the UFG plan. Go back to plan "A": reserve the foot print of the fort for a more modest park/gathering space/market and open up the SW corner of the lot for development. Use the tax income from the development to fund the park.

There are some hitches with this plan, including:
- not all of the $10.3 million may be real. For example, $1.35 million of that might be based on fictional property value.
- Some of the donors may not want their money going to the museum instead of the park

That last one is not likely to be a problem, except perhaps the $1 million donated by the MMF. If I recall, much of the money was donated by crown corporations, although we don't really know how much because that info isn't public.

But ultimately that's how this all will have to end: the government will end up bailing out the CMHR, and if we go ahead with UFG, then that too. My guess is that provincial crown corporations like MPI, Manitoba Hydro and MLCC are going to pony up most of the cash so that it can be called a "donation" in the press releases, but one way or another it's coming from your pockets. I personally feel this is a bit too much, and would love to see the government be realistic about this and retract it's support and funding of UFG and direct that money to the CMHR. That's the key project in this city right now, and if we can help it out while developing an empty lot on Main Street, that's what I call a win-win.

CMHR Part 1: Project Management

I'm not a project manager by trade, but I have worked on projects and taken project management training and I am confident in saying this: if you want your project to come in on time and on budget it needs to be properly managed. Especially if it's a large project like, oh I don't know ... just pulling something out of the air here ... the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

It may come as a surprise to you then, that the project management contract was only just awarded, over three years after the ground breaking ceremony. The RFP (you can still view the notice here) closed on October 24 and approximately two months later the lucky (?) winner was picked. It was supposed to be announced at the end of October but you know how things go ...

When I say “the project management contract”, I mean the task of overall management of the project. The scope of the RFP includes:

- Oversight over the parallel sub-projects that go into the construction of the museum and everything inside the museum, leading up to opening day.
- Coordination, risk management, reporting and resource allocation
- Tracking the status of all major components of construction, including budgets.
- Guidance and recommendations to the CMHR executive.

Why is this only happening now? Maybe they (I don't know who “they” are exactly, but CMHR board, etc.) thought they could handle it on their own? Maybe they realized early on that costs would be tight and decided this would be a good place to cut back? If you bump into Gail Asper at the car wash this week, maybe ask her if you think of it. I would be interested to know. It could just be that the CMHR staff are running around with their heads cut off and didn't find the time to arrange for it.

You can even get a hint of the disorganization within the CMHR project from the RFP. One of the additional tasks that the new PM will have to take care of is creating the Master Project Plan. That's right: there is no Master Project Plan or Schedule. One was not created when the project started, I suppose because there was no Project Manager. They attempted to put one together leading up to this RFP, but were not able to complete it. It's anyone's guess how complete the master plan was when they gave up working on it, but the chosen firm would still have to review and sign the contract before they start working on anything so it's a safe bet that as of right now there is still no completed Master Project Schedule in place. Again, let me remind you: we are three years in to this thing.

The CMHR strikes me as being an organization that has got in a little over their heads. Will the project managers be able to get things back on track? Will they at least be able to keep it from going further off the rails? Will construction grind to a halt when it runs out of money? Questions I can't answer, but the chances of this ending well can't get any worse by putting an actual project plan in place.

Winnipeg, Bilbao and Valencia

I didn't have a chance to read the Winnipeg Free Press this weekend, but I did see the front page. Actually, I saw half of the front page through the window of the news paper box, but I believe that makes me qualified to comment on it's content.

What I saw appeared to be a comparison of Winnipeg with Bilbao Spain. Winnipeg, with its Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and Bilbao with its Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim museum. Perhaps some sort of high-level comparison can be drawn there, but to expect that the CMHR will have the same kind of impact on Winnipeg as The Goog (as they call it on the streetz) had on Bilbao is, I believe, somewhat optimistic. Extremely optimistic, actually.

Firstly, "Canadian Museum for Human Rights" is not nearly as catchy a name as "Guggenheim".
Secondly, Bilbao has the advantage of being located in warm and touristy Spain. People don't travel to Spain just to visit The Goog. They travel to Spain to be in Spain, and while they're there they visit The Goog.
Thirdly, people generally don't like to see depressing things when they're on vacation.

If you want to make a comparison with a Spanish city, there is another one you should consider: Valencia. Yes, Valencia .... Mediterranean yachting hotbed and home of a Formula 1 Grand Prix race, tasty oranges, and paella.

Valencia has a cluster of architecturally unique venues called The City of Arts and Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias). It includes a science museum, an opera house that looks like a storm trooper helmet, botanical gardens, a cinema/planetarium, a indoor sports arena, and Europe's largest oceanographic insititute. Coincidentally, these buildings are all located immediately adjacent to a cable supported bridge (puente l'assut de l'or) that resemblances our own Esplanade Riel.


In fact, when I posted the above pic two years ago on a personal website for friends and family, I had the caption:

This is the brand new International Museum for Human Rights that they just finished building in Valencia. Haha. Just kidding.

Some more pics:


Bilbao is probably a more appropriate comparison with Winnipeg, because Valencia was already "on the map" before these things were built. But my point is ... do I have a point? Ya, I guess I do. I guess my point is, interesting architecture and architecturally unique venues are common, but rarely do they have the impact of the Guggenheim. You don't often hear of people talking about the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, or of any number of other weird and wonderful buildings throughout the world, in the same way that they speak of The Goog or the Sydney opera house.

Now, I don't know what the piece in the Free Press was concluding, but I just want to caution about getting your expectations too high. As stunning as the CMHR may turn out to be, it is highly unlikely that it will be marveled over as one of the greatest masterpieces of modern architecture like the Guggenheim was, and it is even more unlikely that the impact will be near as great.

...

Just for fun, here is one other pic that I took in Valencia:

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.

***
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.