Presented to the city of Montreal as a 350th birthday gift, the Biosphere environment museum will be nothing but a shell by September, says a coalition of groups trying to keep the museum open.
Hit by federal government cuts last summer, only a handful of employees are still working at the museum housed in architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome on Île Ste-Hélène, Pascal Lauzon, president of the Montreal local of the Union of Environment Workers, Public Service Alliance of Canada, said Wednesday.
Conferences and video conferences offered across North America have been halted, he said. Researchers, technicians and other museum employees have been let go or relocated elsewhere within Environment Canada, which runs the museum.
“This is a complete catastrophe — to have the only museum in Canada dedicated to the environment close,” said Hervé Fisher of Science pour tous, a non-profit organization that promotes scientific education in Quebec.
Fisher was one of dozens of elected officials, artists, scientists, educators and museum directors who wrote an open letter calling for the Biosphere to be kept open as an environment museum with an educational focus.
Environment Canada denies it plans to shutter the museum, but changes are coming to the institution, said Michel Jean, director-general of weather and environmental operations for Environment Canada’s meteorological service.
“The Biosphere is not closing,” Jean said. “The Biosphere is transforming.”
Changes include the relocation of the department’s regional meteorological office, including weather forecasters, from Place Bonaventure to the Biosphere, Jean said.
The museum’s focus will be on weather, water, climate and air quality, and there will be exhibits on site, but the federal department hasn’t yet decided whether interpretation staff will be in place, Jean said.
Outreach education services — such as conferences and video conferences — were cancelled at the end of March, Jean said. But the technology used for the former “virtual museum” outreach program could be used for other environmental education, Jean said.
Weather forecasters will be on site, and the television studio and video conferencing facilities could be used for media interviews or to interact with the public during major weather events such as hurricanes or tornadoes, providing “science in real time,” Jean said. Forecasters could also do daily or twice-daily briefings for museum visitors, Jean said.
Environment Canada plans to do some renovation work, which is expected to be completed by the winter of 2015, Jean said. The public will continue to have access to the Biosphere during the work, Jean said.
Both the city of Montreal, which owns the Biosphere, and the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau, which manages the building, said Environment Canada’s lease for the Biosphere requires the agency to maintain public access to the museum.
“There is an agreement that is in place that it has to be used by the federal government, so we will do what we can to make sure this facility stays open and stays a viable attraction for the city of Montreal,” Mayor Michael Applebaum said Wednesday.
Environment Canada’s lease expires in December 2019, said François Cartier, spokesperson for the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau.
Any changes to the Biosphere’s building — such as transforming space into offices — would have to be approved by the park agency, Cartier said. It has not received a request from Environment Canada to do so, he said.
Environment Canada is working on that plan, Jean said.
René Bruemmer of The Gazette contributed to this report.
(Source: montrealgazette.com)