Alberta Historic Site to Receive Government Funding
By EIFION WILLIAMS
VANCOUVER - If the Canadian Government succeeds in steering the 2005 Federal Budget through Parliament, one of the beneficiaries will be the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site in Western Alberta.
Last year, due to budgetary considerations, Parks Canada planned to scale back its facilities at the site. A major casualty of the cutback would have been the Interpretive Centre at the site of the old fort, manned by a volunteer group calling themselves Friends of the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.
The group was especially concerned because the Centre commemorates the achievements of David Thompson, Canada’s greatest explorer and mapmaker, whose achievements included finding a passage through the Rocky Mountains, opening a trade route to the Pacific and being the first white man to explore the entire length of the Columbia River.
Now, as part of the 2005 Budget, Parks Canada will receive an infusion of $315 million in new funding over the next five years. Of this, $2.9 million has been allocated to restore visitor facilities and interpretive displays at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.
The money will be used to rebuild the existing facility. New displays and a new gallery will describe David Thompson’s involvement in the area and also offer visitors a unique opportunity to understand and appreciate how Aboriginal peoples contributed to Canada’s fur trade and development as a nation.
In making the announcement on April 22, Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister, said, “This site offers great potential for Canadians to learn about and connect with our past, and to gain a better understanding of the economic and social forces that shaped our country.”
Environment Minister Stephane Dion said: “The national parks and national historic sites of Canada connect Canadians to each other and to our shared heritage. They are icons of our nation, places of wonder and historic significance, and key contributors to Canada’s sustainable economy. By protecting and preserving them today, we will ensure that they continue to enrich the lives of this generation and future generations of Canadians.”
Because of David Thompson’s Welsh heritage, the Vancouver Welsh Society took an active interest in the effects of the cutbacks at the Rocky Mountain House site. Last year the Welsh Society sent a letter to then Environment Minister David Anderson expressing members’ support for the Friends of the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site in their efforts to preserve this important part of our history.
Rocky Mountain House resident and local historian Pat McDonald has sent a letter of thanks to all those who supported the campaign, including members of the Vancouver Welsh Society. According to McDonald, the interpretive centre will not only remain open but will be refurbished and a special addition dedicated to David Thompson will be added.
On May 19, as part of the Alberta Centennial celebrations, the Friends of the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site hosted a banquet with costumed representatives of the Hudson Bay and Northwest Companies, aboriginal drummers and storytellers, and fiddlers and fur trade music. The following day a group of “voyageurs” set off on the North Saskatchewan River to arrive a few days later just below the Legislature Buildings in Edmonton.
A David Thompson Bicentennial Committee in Rocky Mountain House is currently working with representatives from British Columbia, Montana, Idaho and Washington to celebrate in 2007 the 200th anniversary of David Thompson’s crossing of the Rocky Mountains.
|
