The Nelson Electric Tramway Society has received a tourism grant of $1 million from the province’s Destination Development Fund to upgrade its tracks.
The same fund has given the Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery $500,000 to decolonize its museum collection.
Also receiving significant grants were four other organizations in Nelson, Ainsworth, Slocan and Sandon.
The tramway society will use its grant to replace the ties and tracks on its popular tourist run along Nelson’s lakeshore, according to the society’s Jim Robertson.
He said he was shocked by the news of the grant.
“It is such a relief, but I still have not come to terms with the fact that we did get it,” he said.
The contractor Trophy Rail Ltd. will start work on the project in the fall, aiming for a completion date of March 2025.
Robertson says the group now has to decide on its timing and priorities through discussions with the developers of the under-construction Shorelines housing development, which is adjacent to the tracks.
Astrid Heyerdahl, executive director of the Nelson museum, says their grant will be used to completely rebuild the structure and contents of its second-floor museum.
Last updated in 2006, the current exhibit reflects a view of history that is obsolete, she said.
“When we look at the exhibition right now, for example when we talk about mining, forestry, or damming rivers, it is really just like a singular perspective of how that looks,” she said.
“For example, when we talk about forestry, we will be talking to individuals who have multiple different perspectives of what that means, so we are conversing with forestry professionals, tree planters, Indigenous nations.”
To reflect the history of the Nelson area, Heyerdahl wants to include Indigenous and other perspectives that are now absent from the collection – not changing history, she said, but looking at it from more view points.
The grant will help the museum to leverage more fundraising. Heyerdahl wants the project, which she expects to cost more than $1 million, to be entirely grant funded. The federal government should fund it, she said, because the changes will implement several of the calls to action in the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Heyerdahl is aiming for completion by the end of 2025.
The Destination Development Fund gave a total of over $8 million to 15 organizations in the Kootenays including four more in the Nelson area.
The JB Fletcher Restoration Society in Ainsworth received $65,000 for museum restoration, and the North Slocan Trails Society got $113,250 for the completion of the Butter Me Up mountain bike trail.
The Sandon Historical Society received $376,242 for the rejuvenation of historic ghost town buildings, and the Kootenay Mountaineering Club was given $253,221 for the construction of new backcountry cabin at Huckleberry, northwest of Ymir.
READ MORE:
• Nelson council backs tramway society’s grant application for track replacement
• Streetcar volunteers win Nelson’s 2023 Heritage Award
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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