By Colleen Arsenault
CHARLOTTETOWN — Province House, the birthplace of Canadian Confederation and the seat of Prince Edward Island’s legislature, opened its doors to the public Saturday for the first time in nearly 12 years.
An official ribbon-cutting took place Friday night with the premier, MLAs and the lieutenant-governor in attendance, and public tours began at 10 a.m. Saturday, CBC News reported. The almost 180-year-old building, where delegates gathered for the 1864 Charlottetown Conference, closed for a restoration that began in January 2015. The work cost about $138 million.
‘Every stone and piece of wood’
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Joey Jeffrey, who worked in the building from 2012 until the renovations began, said the building had been in “pretty bad shape,” with plaster falling from the ceiling.
“Basically every stone and piece of wood in this building has been touched,” Jeffrey said. “Anybody who visits this building will see where the time was spent.”
He said the reopening is practical as well as symbolic. “It’s a shrine to Confederation — that’s no doubt. But the legislative assembly now has a modern working building for it.”
Few MLAs have ever sat there
Only two sitting MLAs, Opposition Leader Hal Perry and fellow Liberal Robert Henderson, have sat in the chamber, CBC reported last month.
“To go back into Province House and to have that seat at the desk in the chamber where those conversations have been had to shape Canada is very, very important,” Perry said. “It does make you a bit emotional and a bit nervous.”
Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker, first elected in 2015 and not seeking re-election, said he had resigned himself to never sitting there as a legislator. “It’s unusual, Province House, in that the public, the gallery, is above where the legislature actually sits, so you’re literally looking down on the folks who are doing the business of the people,” he said.
Geraldine Arsenault, superintendent of the P.E.I. field unit for Parks Canada, which led the restoration, said the Charlottetown Conference “was the spark that got the discussions going to create our beautiful country.”
What’s next
The legislature’s fall sitting is set to begin Nov. 3. Province House is a national historic site administered by Parks Canada.
The Buffalo Chronicle has requested comment from Parks Canada on public visiting hours and tour schedules for the coming months.
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