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How the Dionne decision was made

Jeff Fournier on the Dionne sisters: 'We are all indebted to you'

"The level of recognition that [the Dionne] home has, not in our own community, not in our own province, but nationally, there is nothing else in our community that has as much recognition as the Dionne Quints home, their story, the artifacts [...] I think this community does have the responsibility to continue that ownership and share it with the world." - Coun. Chris Mayne

After months of speculation, intrigue and political power plays, finally a decision. The Dionne home will be relocated to the Community Waterfront Park

After being moments away from being shipped to Strong Township on more than one occasion, and its artifacts divided and placed in nearby museums and libraries, the house in which the Dionne Quintuplets were born has had a renaissance of sorts, in North Bay. 

North Bay City Council made the decision Tuesday evening to retain ownership of the home/museum, but make no mistake, it took some convincing. 

It is reasonable to surmise that if not for Chair Jeff Fournier and his Friends of the Dionne Quintuplets Home Museum, sometime before June 1, the home would have been loaded on a truck and driven south down Highway 11. City councillors heeded the protests of the populace this time, with the public pressure leading to a change of heart for the swing votes on Council, and resulting in a 7-3 vote to retain and relocate the home between the Discovery North Bay Museum and Marina Point retirement community.

Councillors Mark King, Mac Bain, and Daryl Vaillancourt dissented. Coun. Mike Anthony was absent but had previously declared a conflict of interest in the matter.

The home will continue to be owned by the City of North Bay and operated in conjunction with a proposed not-for-profit committee of community volunteers, city councillor(s) and interested municipal heritage groups. The cost of the move, to be taken from the profits of the sale of the land on which the home currently sits, at Seymour Street and the Highway 11/17 bypass, was subject to some debate around the table.

Councillor Derek Shogren, who sat on the special sub-committee tasked with finding a resolution to the Dionne saga that has escalated for many months since the City decided to designate the land as surplus, indicated that since the asking price of $1 million was exceeded, that the City using 10 per cent of the overage to move the home was not out of the question.

When pressed by King on total costs, Mayne, who headed the special committee, gave a figure of approximately $150,000, including the move itself, the pouring of a concrete pad to rest the home on, the installation of a wrought-iron fence, as well as landscaping at the new site. Costs for just the move, estimated by Director of Community Services John Severino are expected to be between $37,000 and $52,000. There was some indication that some of the work needed to move and set the home up in its new location would be performed on an in-kind basis by unnamed groups.

Shogren went so far as to doubt that the costs would run as high as the estimates. Mayne said to King that the purpose of the special committee was to present a plan that was amenable to all parties and that he was "not there to debate" the figures.

King responded that he feared the entire move, and especially the "cost was being deeply underestimated."

It was also revealed that the artifacts not currently on display at the Discovery Museum were kept at a secretive climate-controlled location, under the watch of a third party who is donating the storage space for a finite period of time. Coun. Tanya Vrebosch wondered if the same scenario was planned for the Dionne artifacts, cautioning that once the third party's time limit on storage expired, it would cost money to properly store the artifacts and documents. A plan to reach an arrangement with the Harris Learning Library at Nipissing University was discussed, but nothing was finalized.

King wondered if any funding arrangements with the other levels of government had been reached, but Mayne again cautioned that the purview of the special committee was the resolution of what to do in the immediate future with the home while planning ahead somewhat. Mayne clarified that, as was the case with many of the financial questions, reaching an agreement with the City was the starting (and ending) point in these discussions.

Shogren encouraged MP Anthony Rota and MPP Vic Fedeli to seek financial grants at every opportunity to help the process along.

After the vote, Mayne congratulated the volunteers on successfully mobilizing in an effort to sway the municipal politicians, but warned that the real work had yet to begin.


Stu Campaigne

About the Author: Stu Campaigne

Stu Campaigne is a full-time news reporter for BayToday.ca, focusing on local politics and sharing our community's compelling human interest stories.
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