Canadian Press
It took years of planning and development, but the ribbon was cut Wednesday on a swooping mass of concrete, glass and Tyndall stone housing the $40-million RCMP Heritage Centre.
The building on the grounds of the Mountie training depot in Regina means the force finally has a museum that befits its rich past.
“This building will serve as a custodian of a history,” Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert said.
“The RCMP Heritage Centre will serve as a monument to all of the brave men and women who wear, wore and will wear with distinction the uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
The old RCMP museum — a 30-year-old unassuming red-brick building with about 1,000 square metres of display space — was one of the most popular tourist attractions in Regina, drawing between 50,000 and 60,000 visitors annually.
The 6,500-square-metre heritage centre was designed by acclaimed Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. The exhibits are anchored by a 30-metre long March of the Mounties display that runs the length of the main hall. It uses various full-size police vehicles to illustrate the history of the force — from the horse-drawn cannons the Mounties brought West to modern police cruisers. The five exhibit galleries are: Maintaining Law and Order in the West, Protecting the North, Serving All of Canada, Cracking the Case and Call of Duty.
The centre also has a 125-seat, state-of-the-art theatre where the history of the RCMP will be told through video and displays.
The virtual narrator of the show is projected through what is known as Pepper’s Ghost, a lifelike three-dimensional technology used at theme parks such as Disney World.
Regina Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said he hopes the centre will be given national museum status in the near future, opening the door to more technical expertise and federal operating dollars.
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