Since its inception, 45 years ago, the association has been developing a partnership model. We believe that the association needs a budget of around $4.8 million and the federal government, as one of the partners, should contribute $1.2 million. Were the partnership formula any different for our particular project, the federal contribution would be modified accordingly to reflect its level of involvement. Obviously, this would need to be stable funding and would be used for upkeep and presentation. It would not be used to fund capital projects such as, for example, updating the fixtures and fittings in some of our old buildings or undertaking major restoration projects.
By way of example, restoring a railway artifact, such as a locomotive engine that has not suffered too much damage and only requires esthetic work, costs at least $30,000. We recently restored a tramway from the Montreal collection. We were able to restore it to an operational state, but it cost us $175,000, without factoring in the five years of work provided by some 20 volunteers. Restoration projects can require significant investment, yet, year-in year-out, we carry out one such project. However, our collection is so vast, that we really need to carry out work on a larger scale.