Opening hours for the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum and the adjacent sa国际传媒 Archives have been reduced as part of cost-cutting efforts amid budget constraints.
Beginning Oct. 13, the museum will open an hour later, at 10 a.m., seven days a week. The idea of closing one day a week -- common in other Canadian and European museums -- was rejected, said CEO Pauline Rafferty. "[It's] certainly something that we looked at and we decided that this was the least impact on the public."
The provincial archives will trim eight hours during the week through earlier closures -- something Victoria historian John Adams calls a "substantial" curtailment that will impede the work of researchers.
The hours eliminated are the least popular with the public, Rafferty said.
Earlier this year, the province cut the museum's grant by more than $600,000, on an operating budget of $20 million. The just-closed Treasures: The World's Cultures from the British Museum drew about 22,000 fewer patrons than projected -- another major loss in revenue. The museum has been allowed by the province to project a deficit for the first time -- about $500,000 on its operating budget.
But there have been no layoffs, Rafferty said, although some employees' shifts will be shortened. "Layoffs, as I have said from the very beginning, are the very last resort," she said. "The reason we are successful is because of the people that make us successful. We will live within our means."
The move to shorter hours is expected to save about $100,000, based on savings in security, maintenance and electricity, said museum communications manager Diane Dakers.
Other cost-cutting measures include leaving three or four staff positions unfilled and delaying brochures, projects and website development.
The archives currently open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays. That will change to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays. Saturday hours remain at 1 to 5 p.m.
Adams called the archives the "lifeblood" of many historians researching the history of sa国际传媒, adding the curtailment will not just affect local researchers. "One of the biggest impacts will be for scholars and students who come to Victoria for specific research and have a limited amount of time."
While a large amount of archival material is online, many researchers still have to use the archives in person, Adams said.
Rafferty, however, said there's an upside to shorter public hours. Museum staff will be able to access display cases or exhibition galleries, something that's not always possible when the public is around. At the archives, staff will be able to have material ready for people when it opens.
Because the Treasures exhibit wasn't making its targets from the beginning, some of the costs it would have incurred were reduced along the way, she said. "We had line managers scheduled all day but then you don't have lineups, you don't need line managers."
Since Rafferty joined the museum in the 1990s, provincial funding has flatlined around $12 million annually regardless of the government in power, she said. One of the reasons the museum became a Crown corporation in 2003 was to diversify revenue sources. "We are so far behind where museums are elsewhere in terms of diversification of revenue."
The museum's endowment fund is only $3 million, she said.
