B.C. Premier Halts Major Museum Project

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B.C. Premier John Horgan has called a halt to a controversial $789-million plan to rebuild the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.

Horgan said Wednesday the project was "the wrong decision at the wrong time," with the province's residents are concerned about other issues, including the rising cost of living and a critical shortage of family doctors.

The museum rebuild, announced in in May, would have seen the museum closed, demolished and rebuilt over the next eight years. 

A recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute suggested that almost 70 per cent of B.C. residents opposed the plan.

Horgan said the government was "going back to the drawing board" and the museum would remain open as a public consultation process about its future gets underway.

The Opposition Liberals criticized the NDP government's plan, but Horgan also received much negative feedback from the public. 

There are concerns that the museum, across the street from the provincial legislature, is seismically unsound and at risk of flooding.

The museum holds some seven million artifacts, but can only display about one per cent of its collection at a time.