A recent CBC story about a small amount of mercury in the lighthouse at the Canada Science and Technology Museum that spilled during this summer’s earthquake got me thinking about what the real story really is. It’s not the fact that it cost $7 000 to clean up the mercury that spilled, it’s the fact that the museum is incredibly underfunded and has been in need of new buildings for years.

There have been various proposals to build a new purpose-built home for the museum over the years, but none of them have come to fruition. Last month, it was announced that the federal government has agreed to buy the former Nortel Networks Carling Campus in Kanata.

It has been suggested that the Department of National Defence is likely going to move there and I’ve heard other rumblings that the RCMP could be consolidated out there. Both need new office space, but it strikes me that the buildings that were the birthplace of a lot of the high technology that Canada is known for would be the ideal home for the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Many of the buildings are visually impressive with large open spaces connecting wings of brightly-lit floors. There are cafeterias and other facilities that a museum needs that make it an even better fit with the museum.

And from the point of view of housing the museum’s vast collection the buildings are secure and many of them have excellent climate control systems that could provide the environment needed to maintain the collection.

Canada has much to be proud of in terms of the science and technology that has originated here. This needs to be presented in a facility the reflects this and of the available buildings in the capital of Canada, that is the former Nortel Networks Carling Campus.