HMCS Sackville memorial project buoyed
by $250,000 from Ottawa
BY PAUL MCLEOD OTTAWA BUREAU
Published March 2, 2013 - 10:45pm
OTTAWA — The federal government is giving $250,000 toward the commemoration and preservation of HMCS Sackville.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay will be in Halifax Sunday to announce the donation to the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust.
The Sackville is the last of Canada’s 123 Second World War-era corvettes. It spends its summers docked along the Halifax waterfront.
The trust has plans to raise tens of millions of dollars from governments and private donors to establish a new memorial on the waterfront that has the 71-year-old ship as its centrepiece.
The plan calls on constructing a building, covering 1.8 hectares, that houses an interpretive centre and interactive displays on the Battle of the Atlantic. The plan is to have the memorial ready for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.
Retired navy captain Ted Kelly said in January that a request for proposals to design what will be known as Battle of Atlantic Place will be out soon and “architects are salivating” at the opportunity. A promotional campaign is also planned.
The request for proposals and design phase is expected to cost up to $1 million. The entire project is projected to range from $90 million to $100 million.
The $250,000 that will be announced Sunday will go toward the design of the centre.
Read on at the Halifax Chronicle Herald