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Royal Alberta Museum to reduce hours, find efficiencies following provincial budget

Click to play video: 'A look back at how the new Royal Alberta Museum came to be'
A look back at how the new Royal Alberta Museum came to be
WATCH (Oct. 3, 2018): The Royal Alberta Museum is now officially open in its new downtown Edmonton location. Fletcher Kent takes a look back at how we got here and where the new museum will take us – Oct 3, 2018

The Royal Alberta Museum is taking steps to cut costs in the wake of the Feb. 27 provincial budget.

The facility will be reducing operating hours and assessing how much certain programs are used.

“The 21 per cent reduction at the Royal Alberta Museum is mainly due to the optimization of operations and efficiencies identified at heritage facilities,” a spokesperson for the ministry of Culture, Multiculturalism, and Status of Women said in an email to Global News.

“The museum will minimize spending on paid advertising and strategically reduce operating hours during underused times in an effort to maintain fiscal health.

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“Royal Alberta Museum will be closed Mondays, except holidays.”

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She said, to date, no programs at the museum have been cut.

“We will continue to assess programming to assure they are being utilized and are impactful for Albertans.”

Alberta Budget 2020 will see the budget for the ministry of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women drop from $218 million this fiscal year (2019-20) to $185 million in 2020-21.

However, the ministry spokesperson says that roughly $33-million drop is mostly due to grants being moved to the ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism.

Alberta Budget 2020 explains “the ministry’s operating expense budget for 2020-21 is $185 million, reducing to $157 million by 2022-23 due to the gradual conclusion of the screen-based production grants that have been transitioned to a film and television tax credit budgeted in the ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism.”

There is no word on how the spending reduction will impact jobs at the museum.

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