Mary Pat Mombourquette, executive director of the Cape Breton Miners Museum in Glace Bay: "If people don't walk through our doors, our bills don't get paid. So we cannot cut our fees.If we had some operational funding, sure, then we would consider cutting our prices.
The CEO for Ambassatours Gray Line, which operates bus tours in conjunction with day trips for cruise ship passengers, confirmed that in 2019, it had asked the museum to cut its entry fees by half in 2019, but as a suggestion from some of the cruise lines the operation deals with. CONTRIBUTED - Contributed“Now, granted we’re not considered a Nova Scotia museum or a Parks Canada museum. We just support ourselves with these fees with people walking through our doors,” Mombourquette said.
Cape Breton Miners Museum executive director Mary Pat Mombourquette is all smiles earlier this year as she sits on one of the downbound cars in the facility’s new virtual mine simulator after the museum was awarded $1.6 million in government grants for help with Phase 2 of its Interpretive Renewal Plan.
Meanwhile, Ambassatours Gray Line CEO Dennis Campbell confirmed to the Cape Breton Post that it had asked the museum to cut its entry fees in half in 2019. Campbell feels frustrated that his company is being portrayed in a negative light over the fee-cut suggestion.As for the notion that Ambassatours would say bus tours wouldn’t market the Miners Museum as a destination to visit, Campbell said he was “disappointed” that the museum would react that way.