B.C.’s decision to demolish a modern and seismically-safe IMAX theatre at the Royal BC Museum, which the province just bought for $4 million several months ago, is another example of the wasted money and poor decision-making behind the controversial museum redevelopment, say critics.
The B.C. government paid $4.2 million in August 2020 to Destination Cinema Canada to acquire the building, including the six-storey screen (billed as the largest in B.C.), 365 theatre seats and 4K laser technology.
But just 20 months later, in May, the province announced the theatre would be demolished along with the rest of the museum as part of a new $1-billion rebuild. Officials say they’ll salvage the projector, and rebuild IMAX into whatever new museum structure is finished by 2030.
“Obviously, there’s been no cohesive plan about the long-term redevelopment of this museum site,” said Opposition BC Liberal finance critic Peter Milobar.
“This billion-dollar project came out of nowhere. And nothing says that more than spending (almost) $5 million for the IMAX just two years ago, to then turn around and say, now they’re going to tear it down as part of this redevelopment.”
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The IMAX theatre building is only 25 years old, and appears to have no major seismic issues or facility condition concerns. It was built in 1997 by private company Destination Cinema and connected to the museum as part of a 30-year operating lease. It was upgraded in 2016 to include new laser technology for a high-definition 4K picture.
The government exercised an option to buy out the lease and building in 2020, with the RBCM CEO saying at the time that “bringing the IMAX Victoria into the museum operation opens up more educational opportunities as we work to update the museum.”
There was no mention of any plan to demolish the IMAX or larger museum.
Green MLA Adam Olsen said it’s hard to imagine why government would waste millions of dollars.
“I think that this is a public relations disaster that the NDP have brought on themselves,” Olsen said of the $1-billion museum project.
“When you hear now that the fact is they’ve bought the IMAX, and now they are going to tear it down, it’s just par for the course with this project.”
Tourism Minister Melanie Mark defended the IMAX purchase, saying it “made sense” for the province to take full control as it considered a larger museum redesign.
“By owning it, we have the chance for it to be part of the purpose-built museum that we’re going to get into the near future,” she said in an interview, describing it as “capital asset for British Columbians.”
Internal government documents show provincial officials had been working on a plan to tear down the museum and replace it, as far back as 2018. The public, however, was only told government was considering “modernization” options.
Premier John Horgan faced a public backlash after announcing the Royal BC Museum rebuild in May, saying it would be closed for eight years starting this September.
Many angry residents suggested the $1 billion could be better spent helping fix the family doctor crisis, strained health care system, record-high gas prices, record-high housing prices, and record-high inflation that is driving up the cost of ordinary household goods.
The museum project is slated to be the most expensive in Canadian history, with $789 million earmarked for a new main museum building near the legislature in downtown Victoria and another more than $200 million for an archive building in Colwood.
Government has yet to fully design the new museum, except for what it calls indicative designs it has refused to release publicly. A new IMAX theatre will be included, said Mark.
“We’re going to rebuild it, it’s still going to be a part of the new institution moving forward and we are going to keep it open as long as we can,” said Mark.
While the main museum will close in September for almost eight years, as part of the redevelopment project, the IMAX will be open an additional four months, until January 2023, she said.
The IMAX had provided the Royal BC Museum around $450,000 a year in revenue shared by the private operator.
The company built the theatre privately in exchange for a 30-year operating lease. The lease contained two dates in which the museum could exercise an option to buy-out the company and its building for a fair market rate — which the museum and government exercised in 2020.
Horgan and Mark have cited seismic instability and deteriorating facilities as some of the reasons for the larger museum redevelopment project.
The IMAX facility is not broken down in detail as part of facility condition index reports in the museum redevelopment business case documents.
The Tourism Ministry says the IMAX is included in the “fair” facility rating given to the museum’s main exhibition hall.
But a more apt comparison is likely the museum lobby, which was completed at the same time as the IMAX in 1997 as part of upgrades that included connecting the new IMAX theatre to a refreshed public entrance. The museum lobby is listed in “very good” facility condition and is the most seismically stable structure at the RBCM.
Rob Shaw
