Do You Have A Casaul Interest In Ontario History

Would you or can you easily get to York University to feed your interest? Would you get more involved if the information was housed in downtown Toronto. Of course this is a mute question if you don't live in the center of the Universe but I want to start fiberal bashing as quickly as possible in this election year.

New home for archives

What did 18th-century Toronto or Kingston look like to Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada?

How cold was it on Dec. 2, 1905, the date of Toronto's first Santa Claus Parade? When were our ancestors born, married and buried?

These are just a few of the historical nuggets anyone can uncover by visiting the Archives of Ontario, a treasure trove of written material, photographs and government records that documents the province's rich and storied past.

But for far too long, this irreplaceable collection has been threatened by the abysmal conditions in which it is housed.

The Grenville St. archives building in downtown Toronto is a mould-infested firetrap with sagging floors and no sprinkler system.

A consultant's report has estimated the collection, worth more than $400 million, is losing value at a rate of $36,000 a day for every day it remains in this substandard building.

So it is welcome news that the Ontario government has finally struck a deal to move the archives to a new building on the campus of York University in northwest Toronto.

The facility, set to open in 2009, will meet international archival standards and incorporate environmentally friendly features.

Most important, it will ensure Ontario's history is properly preserved for future generations.

The question many are rightly asking, though, is why it took so long.

The simple answer is politics. The previous Conservative government had struck a deal with an insurance company to move the archives to a building on Simcoe St., near Queen St. W. But the Liberals killed that agreement in 2004 and started the search all over again.

Four bidders initially emerged. But after three of them dropped out of the running, York University was the only option left.

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