(Laval) The Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, recognizes that the deployment of Blue Spaces in all regions of Quebec will take longer than expected, while cost overruns are hitting the first sites announced.
“I don’t think it’s a race either. The important thing is that we do the job well, ”defended Mr. Lacombe on Thursday on the sidelines of the pre-sessional caucus of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in Laval.
Announced in June 2021, Espaces Bleus is a new network of regional museums focused primarily on Quebec “pride”. Prime Minister François Legault had unveiled this project with great fanfare at the Séminaire de Québec, which will also host the network’s parent company. The initial budget planned to open Blue Spaces in each region of the province was 259 million.
Gold, The sun recently reported that three of the four sites announced for the launch of this new network had significant cost overruns. The budget allocated to the Camille-Roy pavilion of the Séminaire de Québec would, for example, increase from 47 to 60 million dollars. Mathieu Lacombe recognizes this and affirms that he is now working with his teams to review the calendar of announcements of the next Blue Spaces.
PHOTO ARCHIVE THE SUN
Construction site of the Blue Space at the Séminaire de Québec
“That leads us to look at this file very carefully and to spend more time on it to ensure that we have good control of construction costs and that we adapt the deployment of the network according to this increase in costs. “, he said.
“Ultimately, the objective is to have them in each of the regions of Quebec. Now, it is certain that depending on the costs which have increased, we will be able to adjust the schedule,” added Mr. Lacombe.
No competition
The columnist of The Press Mario Girard also recalled Thursday that the opposition was critical in Parliament of this new network which competes, it was said, with regional museums already well established in the territory.
” [Les musées existants] have great difficulty in developing and maintaining their activities. I don’t know who claimed these Blue Spaces. I see there only a desire of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) to leave a political legacy, ”said Pascal Bérubé of the Parti Québécois (PQ) in particular.
Mathieu Lacombe categorically rejects this criticism. He assures that regional museums and Blue Spaces can “coexist very well”, since they do not have the same mission.
“Having two cultural infrastructures in the same region, I think is an advantage rather than a disadvantage,” he said.
Minister Lacombe is also not worried about the relevance of the exhibitions that will be presented there, while the mandate to create content has been entrusted to the teams of the Musée de la civilization in Quebec.
“It will be anything but cheesy! We’ll talk about the things that make us proud, our great singers, our great singers, our great artists, athletes, Quebec inventions… Certainly, Céline will probably be somewhere in one of our Blue Spaces, but it won’t be an order from me, “he said, with a smirk, in a nod to the news that caught up with the new minister at the start of his mandate, when he was asked for the first time in Parliament to comment on the health problems of Charlemagne’s diva.