Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Pemberton Museum funding considered

Referendum likely to decide annual $71,500 requisition

By Cindy Filipenko

A tax requisition to sustain the Pemberton and District Museum and Archives Society will likely be the third referendum on the ballot for Pemberton/Electoral Area C voters.

The question calls for an annual requisition of $0.095 per $1,000 of property assessment, up to a total of $71,500, to fund the society. For the owner of an average $480,000 single family home this would amount to $45.60 per year.

A bylaw allowing the addition of this service was put forth at the Sept. 19 Squamish-Lillooet Regional District meeting. The request for sustaining funds came in the form of a letter from society president George Henry.

Established in the late 1980s, the museum has been continuously operating through volunteer labour. To date the museum has been self-sufficient, meeting its annual operating budget through its own fundraising events.

The only government funding the society has received were federally funded student employment grants through what is now Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. This year, the society’s application for the grant was rejected and the Village of Pemberton and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District provided the shortfall in wages required for a student worker.

The museum, which occupies 0.8 of an acre, features a variety of pioneer hand-hewn, log homes transported from the surrounding areas of D’Arcy, Lillooet Lake and the upper Pemberton Valley.

In a feature article on museums which appeared in Pique Newsmagazine this past May, Henry stated that the museum was anticipating a variety of extraordinary upcoming costs. These costs were directly related to the upkeep and preservation of the buildings and establishing proper display areas for the museum’s extensive collection of late 19 th and early 20 th century farming artifacts.