People who work in the tourism and museum sectors in Nova Scotia are calling the government’s decision to close three museums and most provincially operated visitor information centres “short-sighted.”

On Thursday, employees at the Fisherman’s Life Museum in Oyster Pond, Prescott House Museum in Starrs Point and the Sutherland Steam Mill Museum in Tatamagouche were informed they are losing their jobs because the three museums will be permanently closed.

The province also confirmed Thursday it is closing the visitor information centres at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Peggys Cove, Port Hastings and Yarmouth. The centre in Amherst will operate from May to October instead of year-round.

The province says it needs to modernize the museum system, and that maintaining all the sites and buildings had become increasingly difficult. It also said it needs to update how it delivers information to tourists. The cuts come as the provincial government grapples with a $1.4-billion budget deficit.

‘It represented a lot of us’

“It strikes me as extremely short-sighted and it’s such a dangerous precedent that a museum that is in public hands … can just be disregarded and kind of cast to the side,” said Matthew Hughson, who worked as the site supervisor at the Fisherman’s Life Museum for eight years.

Former employees at the museum on the province’s Eastern Shore said closing it will be a blow to tourism in the rural community and to the preservation of the area’s heritage. The museum represented a traditional fishing family’s home, and a way of life that included both hardships and charm.

“It represented a lot of us,” said Amanda Dyke, who worked at the museum for nine summers as a heritage interpreter. “It’s where a lot of us came from — fishing families, rural, living-off-the-land type of people and professions.

“You know, like we love all our beautiful estate museums, they’re great, but how many people come from that or can relate to that?”

Denise Tufts, who was the maintenance and grounds worker for two seasons, said the site was already running on a shoestring budget, and employees sometimes brought supplies from home, such as paint, tools and stationery, to keep it running.

“If you want austerity, Tim Houston, this place is what that was about. This place, this is how people lived,” Tufts said. “I mean, it’s just, it’s really bad optics.”

Dyke said the museum saw visitors from all over the world as well as locals and newcomers to the province.

“It’s sad that it will be ignored. You know, someone who’s just showing up here, they’re probably not going to look through a school textbook and learn about this stuff. They wanted to come see it, experience it,” Dyke said.

The employees said they are worried about what will happen with the artifacts, buildings and properties.

Cost savings

According to the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, Nova Scotia’s museums need more than $10 million in repairs and maintenance, and closing the three sites will reduce those costs and “allow us to invest where it matters most,” said a statement from the department.

The estimated labour cost for the three affected museums was about $260,000 per year.

On average, over the past five years, the Fisherman’s Life Museum received 1,466 visitors per year, while Prescott House Museum had 1,247 visitors per year and the Sutherland Steam Mill Museum had 1,035.

The budget for the visitor information centres was more than $1 million per year, plus $200,000 for visitor enumeration.

What will happen with the museums?

It is unclear exactly what will become of the properties and buildings that comprise the museum sites.

“Over the coming months, we will complete the administrative process of closing the sites,” reads a statement from the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage. “We will then engage with local communities to explore options for future use of the buildings that continue to benefit the community.”

As for the artifacts inside the museums, they will be “managed according to professional museum standards,” the statement said. Some items may be kept within the province’s museum system, while others could be transferred to community organizations or institutions.

Visitor information centres ‘full of people’

Samantha Bambrick owns a hop-on, hop-off transportation and tour service called Alternative Routes Nova Scotia.

She said in the summer, her business received about five calls a day from people who found out about her through staff at the visitor information centre at Peggys Cove.

Bambrick said the visitor centre is needed and well used by tourists.

“It’s full,” she said. “That place is packed morning to evening every day and it’s full of people just asking questions.”

The fact that people go to the centre to ask questions in person is proof that the other options — such as seeking tourism information online — aren’t enough, Bambrick said.

“The reason why they land at the airport and they still don’t know what they’re going to do is because they’re not able to find that information properly. So to have real humans who can sit in front of people and tell them what to do, I think is really important.”

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