Alberta ups the ante on national portrait gallery race with $40M commitment

"I grew up in Ottawa. They've got lots of museums. It's time they spread the wealth to the rest of Canadians," Lindsay Blackett said after the province confirmed in its budget it will kick in $40 million if Edmonton or Calgary becomes the new home of the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

"It's time we got our fair share," said Blackett. "We thought it would be a great thing in Alberta to have one of our national museums here."

Calgary and Edmonton were among nine cities invited last November by the federal government to bid to get the gallery - a move that has reignited another round of vintage Canuckian debate on culture versus geography.

Blackett said the $40 million is not tied to a specific budget item, such as paintings or construction costs.

Alberta's Opposition New Democrats, long a critic of Premier Ed Stelmach's government for spending decisions they say ignore the wishes of everyday Albertans, applauded the bid.

"I'm not one of those people who believe we should be backing away from spending on arts and culture," said party leader Brian Mason. "That's part of the quality of life that we enjoy in this province, and I believe the government should be involved in promoting that."

In Edmonton, the development firm Qualico is offering to put up a three-storey building near City Hall downtown to house the thousands of portraits of famous Canadians from first prime minister John A. Macdonald to Olympic rower Silken Laumann.

The building would be a maximum 585 square metres, topped with an atrium.

In Calgary, city council has voted to spend $500,0000 on its bid, has identified two vacant lots around the downtown and is talking with private-sector partners.

Ottawa's bid got on track last week when the city worked out a deal with local developer Claridge Homes.

Negotiations had stalled after Claridge had promised space for the gallery at the base of two 27-storey residential towers, but zoning rules did not permit buildings that high. A last-minute compromise will allow the towers to go ahead at 20 and 24 storeys, with separate space for the gallery.

Bidding closes on May 16. The plan is to open the new museum in 2012.

Critics have lashed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for the bid plan. They have labelled it either an international embarrassment - for flirting with a national institution outside the nation's capital - or a ploy by a Calgary-based leader with an agenda to put the gallery in his political home base.

Senator Jerry Grafstein is pushing a bill to amend the Library and Archives of Canada Act to require that the gallery stay in Ottawa.

Not everything, he says, has to be centred in the capital, but an iconic institution such as the portrait gallery needs to be where most Canadians can quickly travel to it and to be where most tourists expect to find it.

Instead, he said, the federal government is pitting region against region.

"Just because someone has the biggest paycheque, that's now how culture should be developed in this country," said Grafstein in an interview from Washington D.C.

For now, the collection of portraits is in a capital region building run by the National Archives, but is displayed in touring exhibits and on the Internet.

Grafstein said there's also the question of having the archives down east but the gallery itself in the west. Would the archives move west, too? Would all the portraits be shipped? If not, who would decide what is displayed and not displayed? What would the transportation and insurance costs be?

"No one's looking at the downstream ramifications or costs," he said.

His bill, going to second reading, needs the OK from both the Senate and the House of Commons to become law.

Over the last seven years, the gallery concept has morphed from political dream to financial sinkhole.

It was first announced in 2001 under former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien. About $11 million was spent refurbishing the old U.S. embassy, directly across from Parliament Hill, to house the collection.

The price tag was supposed to be about $22 million and the museum to open in 2005.

But delay followed delay and the cost ballooned to $44 million by 2006. When Harper's Conservatives won the election that year, his team decided the gallery was becoming a money pit and pulled the plug.

Six other cities - Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver - have also been deemed bid-worthy by the feds because of their populations. Private-public partnerships have been encouraged to save taxpayer money.