Within The RCA Regimental Fund (A registered charity that issues
receipts for income tax purposes)
The Executive Board of Directors of The RCA Regimental Fund
(The Board receives recommendations for monies earmarked as Heritage
funds from the RCA Heritage Council, chaired by the Colonel Commandant)
The Executive Board of Directors of The RCA Regimental Fund.
Heritage spending is done in accordance with the RCA Heritage plan
approved by the Heritage Council.
Yes, designated funding is permitted
The target is 10 % or less.
6. Why
would I give money to support a museum in Shilo – it is too far away from
anywhere and no one will visit it?
The Heritage campaign is designed to tell the Gunner
story to all
Canadians from coast to coast. It will achieve this
goal by maintaining
the collection in a professional and environmentally
correct atmosphere
in the RCA Museum in Shilo. The story will be put on
line and widely
advertised to schools and other educational
institutions. In addition,
professionally developed traveling exhibits will be
prepared to complement
various celebrations across the country, which started
in 2005 with the
opening of The Canadian War Museum and the 150th
anniversary of
the oldest Canadian Batteries. As part of the overall
plan, the RCA
Museum in Shilo will remain as the hub of support to
all museums
telling the Gunner story.
Shilo is the only option available to maintain the
collection. The
Crown provides the basic infrastructure and operating
costs, including
staff. An estimate of the cost to move the artifacts
obtained in 2000 was
at least $7 million dollars without taking into
account future Operation & Maintenance (O&M) expenses or a new building.
Thus, moving is not
affordable. In addition, the collection cannot be
moved without
DND approval.
As a Department of National Defense (DND) museum, the
RCA
Museum must be located on DND property. In this
regard, the
Home Station makes the most sense.
By the way, over the last two years the RCA museum
received
approximately 18,000 visitors from as far away as
Germany. There
have been over 130,000 hits on the RCA website, many
of these
directed to the museum. It should be noted, the museum
was closed for approximately nine months during this period.
7. I
gave money to the Gregg Collection appeal. What happened to that money?
The Gregg money has
been expended as intended on improving the
RCA Museum as a
suitable display facility for this one of a kind
vehicle collection, in
accordance with the agreement with Dr. Gregg.
8. What is the size of the new museum building today and the size of the
proposed phased additions?
Building N-118 footprint is 24,000 ft², currently used
as follows:
a.
The RCA Gallery – 9,515 ft²;
b.
Gregg Rotating Vehicle Gallery – 2,475 ft²;
c.
Manitoba Military History Gallery – 2,120 ft²;
d.
RHQ and Museum offices – 1,870 ft²;
e.
RCA Archives and research centre - 1,870 ft²;
f.
Storage space – 1,340 ft²;
g.
Canadian Military History Gallery – 1,000 ft²;
h.
Visitor Services (entrance, washrooms etc) – 960
ft²;
i.
Mechanical – 760 ft²;
j.
RCA Kit Shop – 750 ft²;
k.
Vehicle airlock entrance – 700 ft²; and
l.
Weapons Vault Gallery – 640 ft².
An addition is planned to be built as fundraising
permits (between 2014
and 2020). The 8,500 ft² addition will provide office
space, storage, visitor
services, a conference/classroom space and an area for
the RCA Kit Shop.
This expansion will allow for the Travelling
Exhibition Gallery (currently
temporary RHQ and Museum staff offices – 1,870 ft² )
and a Rotating
Exhibition Gallery (currently the temporary RCA Kit
Shop – 750 ft² ) to
be opened in the main building. In addition, The RCA
Gallery will be
expanded by 960 ft² once visitor services are moved to
the extension.
9. By
what measure is the RCA Museum judged second largest in the
country?
Number of artefacts in the collection (approximately
65,000)
10. Is there any intention to have the collection professionally or
otherwise appraised for dollar value?
Not at this time.
11. Who owns the
collection?
All Museum artefacts (Canadian Forces (CF) artefacts
and Non Public Property (NPP) artefacts) are the property of the
Crown. All weapons
and weapon systems are on the Distribution Account
(DA) and
registered in the DND museums weapons inventory.
12. What is the estimated cost and content of currently planned 'travelling
road shows'?
FY 2005: The travelling exhibition, “Canada’s Gunners,” opened at
the Canadian War Museum. 230,000 visitors viewed the heritage of
The Royal Regiment. The exhibition will be featured at Halifax,
Montreal, Victoria and Edmonton museums before finishing at the
RCA Museum in November, 2007. The on-line portion of the exhibition,
www.gunner.ca, is a legacy
project. The exhibition cost $164,659 cash
and $61,000 in-kind donations to build and took more than 2000 staff
hours to plan and develop.
13. What is the estimated cost breakdown of annual operations of the RCA
Museum, not including capital requirements?
Current budget ($298,000 PublicFunds & $104,000
Non-Public Funds):
O&M: $69,000 ($9,000 Public)
Wages : $248,500 rising to $264,000 by FY 2008
($220,000 Public)
Construction Engineering Maintenance and Utilities:
$69,000 (all Public).
14.
What is the future of Canadian Forces Base
Shilo?
The future of CFB Shilo is not in question. The Base has the
- Western Area Training Centre - Detachment Shilo
- 1 Dental Unit Detachment Shilo
- 11 Canadian Forces Heath Services Unit Shilo
- Communication Reserves School
- 26th Field Artillery Regt (Brandon and Portage)
The Base is a very important Canadian training area that employs
1950 DND personnel. There are no prospects of closure on the horizon.
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