Aaron Mahoney
Councillor Mark King said on Tuesday night that through the surviving Dionne Quintuplet sister’s spokesperson, Carlo Tarini he’d been told the Dionne sisters wanted to see their home go to Ottawa. Carlo Tarini reached out to the Moose, and wanted to correct the record. He says for the past 6 months he’s repeatedly voiced that the surviving Dionne sisters wish for Plan A: which is to keep the Museum in one piece in North Bay as opposed to the City Council plan to chop it off and send the museum building off to Strong Township, while the artifacts of the Dionne Museum would be sent to two other venues.
Tarini says if that scenario is unavoidable, and there are no other venues available in North Bay, then yes Plan B would be to find a new home for the museum. The ideal place favored by the surviving Dionne sisters at that point would be the Canadian Museum of History (which Tarini pointed out is in Gatineau and not Ottawa).
King says late last Friday, Tarini received a letter from the Prime Minister’s office after he’s been attempting to get the federal government to take some action on this issue. He says it’s gone from the PM’s office to Heritage Minister Melanie Joly’s office and that’s the last he’s heard of it. King says the bottom line in this whole process is the city should not be held for ransom. He says the provincial government and the federal government need to take some responsibility here, and he believes things are moving in that direction.
King finished by saying he knows this will anger groups like the Friends of the Dionne Home, but they need to recognize that this isn’t just a North Bay issue or a regional issue. King says it’s an issue that concerns Canada, and he doesn’t believe it’s fair for taxpayers in the city to be saddled with the cost of keeping the home.
Article originally posted on http://www.mynorthbaynow.com/17657/city-councillor-says-surviving-dionne-quintuplet-sisters-want-home-go-ottawa/