2023 was on track to be the best year ever for the Tumbler Ridge Museum.
According to Executive Director Zena Conlin, 2023 started off with record-setting numbers. “From January through May we exceeded our 2019 visitor numbers, which were the highest we’d ever recorded to date,” says Conlin. “Up until June, we were trending to have one of the best years the museum has ever seen.”
And then, the fire happened, and visitor numbers plunged.
“Although we won’t have a full account until later in January, I can say as of the end of November our total visitor count is approximately seven percent less than in even 2020, when we were closed for three months due to the pandemic. The impact of this year’s wildfire was significant for us.”
Conlin isn’t sure why visitor numbers didn’t recover after the evacuation ended, but she suspects the fire season still played a role.
“We don’t have the data confirm this, but I think a part of it was because our wildfire here was very early in the season. It happened right when people were planning their summer vacations, so I think people were reading the news and seeing that maybe Tumbler Ridge wasn’t really a viable option for this year.
“Anecdotally, when I listened to my staff planning their trips this summer, they really took into account that we were still on alert, so they didn’t want to go anywhere. They wanted to be here. A lot of other regions in BC were on alert or evacuated, too. Once I have a bit more of our visitor data parsed out, we can pull out geographical information, but my gut feeling says that we really dropped in BC visitors, as people were either evacuated or choosing to stay close to home because they were on alert.”
The fire smoke probably also played a role. “Our tour numbers were way down this year. Our admissions were down by 20 percent but our tours were down by 40 percent, and I think that’s because people just didn’t want to be outside. They wanted to come in and just do the inside stuff. That’s my initial response, without having a bit more data behind it.”
Despite the drop in visitor numbers, says Conlin, gift shop sales remained strong and were up over 2022.
Also up for 2023 were school visits. “We offered several summer programs and worked with researchers from across the province and beyond to improve the quality of data in our collection, continue fieldwork and support new opportunities.”
According to Conlin, they even had a group show up from Fort Ware, a remote community north of Mackenzie accessible only by logging road.
They’ve had groups from Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Fort St. John and Mackenzie. She says once they are able to hire a few more people, the plan is to start taking museum programs on the road. “Right now, I’m the one running all the school programs. I’m hoping once we get a programs coordinator that can just focus on that and develop education programs that we can take into schools, as opposed to schools always coming to us.”
Starting in 2024, the Tumbler Ridge Museum will be part of a new Dino Trail, connecting the Grande Cache Visitor Centre, the Philip J. Curie Dinosaur Museum and Exploration Place in Prince George.
“Thanks to a grant from South Peace Mackenzie Trust, we were able to hire a collections manager, a key position that is allowing us to move forward with several collections projects,” says Conlin. “Additionally his work includes assisting with actual physical collecting, managing all the fossil documentation and database documentation, coordinating research access and assisting with outreach activities.”
Finally, she says, the museum held its first major fundraiser in a number of years, raising just over $5,800 to go towards some education room upgrades.
“Which brings us to our request for renewal of our funding agreement with the District of Tumbler Ridge,” says Conlin. “Our current agreement expires on February 28, 2024. We are here to ask Mayor and Council for your support for a four-year renewal of the same $220,000 per year from March 1 2024 through February 28 2028. We recognize that this agreement is outside the norm of the regular Grant in Aid process so we’re here to provide some background information on why this approach was taken.”
In the spring of 2018, she says, funding to the museum from the District was withdrawn. “The organization mounted a major fundraising campaign that allowed the museum to reopen for that summer and then the District agreed to some funding support while participating in a facilitation process requested by the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture. CNG Communications were appointed to work with the District of Tumbler Ridge, the Peace River Regional District (PRRD), the Tumbler Ridge Global Geopark Society and the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation to deliver a framework for collaboration. The priority initiative for the museum was to implement a new organizational and governance structure and then work with the District to develop a long-term funding agreement.”
At that time, she says, a referendum to support continued funding was put to the residents of Tumbler Ridge. An “overwhelming” 78 percent were in favor. In 2019 the District approved a one-year Grant in Aid while the museum made the operational and governance structural changes that were required and began negotiating a multi-year agreement, from March 1, 2020 through February 28, 2024.
“We also developed our values mission and vision and a strategic framework that now guides our decision making. But 2020 threw us some curveballs. A global pandemic and the loss of funding from the PRRD due to an internal policy compliance issue were the biggest issues. Our survival was once again at risk and it’s only through government wage subsidies, a federally sponsored reopening grant we received in 2021 by not replacing departing staff immediately, two years of direct support from the District of Taylor and our funding from the District of Tumbler Ridge that we have survived the last three years.”
Other hardships along the way included the scaling back of Federal summer employment funding along with sharply rising inflation and minimum wages. “Because of this, we have been operating in survival mode. So what does survival mode look like? For most of that time, it was two staff members trying to do the full-time work of six,” she says. “Projects have been delayed as capacities diminished. Stress has been chronically high. It means not attending conferences and other important meetings, less fieldwork, less research, less gallery development, less programming and public outreach. We have been working at our maximum and beyond to do the minimum we have needed to keep operations going.”
And then in October of 2022, says Conlin, the museum saw the light at the end of the tunnel with the residents of the PRRD voting in favor to approve the establishment of a Grant in Aid Service Bylaw which goes into effect in August of this year.
“Our PRRD contract is for initial five years,” she says. “So with that what does a renewed contract with the District of Tumbler Ridge enable us to do? A lot of it comes down to leveraging funding. Many other grants—especially government grants—require proven long-term operational stability, but the majority of these grants are for projects and don’t support core costs like wages and utilities. The support from long-term operational agreements makes our organization a solid investment. But to complete projects we need people and we need to keep up with inflation. And so with the District’s continued support, we’ll be able to access new opportunities that we have had to pass over the last few years. In addition to stable operational funding, most other grant opportunities require some degree of matching investment. For example there was an announcement two weeks ago of a new federally funded tourism growth grant which will fund up to 65 percent of a two-year project. But it’s also a contribution grant so in addition to matching 35 percent, we need to have the cash flow to pay up front and then submit for reimbursement. This is also one of the grants where we have to prove stability and include our funding agreements as part of the application process.
“If successful it will have a major impact on our ability to offer tours, extend our season and develop new sites for public accessibility.”
More than that, she says, guaranteed funding will make the museum more resilient. “We will be able to weather the storm. It seems every year there’s a new greater than anticipated challenge to work through. Pandemics, wildfires, inflation. Our best laid plans are easily foiled by aspects out of our control that severely impact our bottom line. Long-term funding agreements assist in alleviating the constant fear that we may not be able to weather the next storm. To right-size our staff to reduce how many hats the current employees are wearing, and make sure we’re wearing the right ones. We’ll also be able to supply employees with the tools, supplies and training they need to do their jobs. And as the capacity for our staff to take on additional responsibilities increases it will help relieve the bottleneck of the day-to-day operations and services that inevitably have become my full-time role. I will be able to allocate more time to the other responsibilities of my position in getting currently funded projects completed, finding and applying for those other grant opportunities and working with the board and our partners to develop what are becoming critical long-term plans for growth and success, like infrastructure.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.