Recently, Canadian Tire Corporation withdrew from negotiations with the Canadian Fire Fighters Museum in Port Hope for the sale of the former Canadian Tire store on Robertson Street in Port Hope. This was a blow to the Museum that had spent a lot of money to develop a site plan for the location. It would have put the Museum in a position to open on a year-round basis and to feature many of their artifacts that represent all aspects of firefighting including traditional, forest and airport firefighting.
The Board of the Canadian Fire Fighters Museum has not given up hope. But they are in a bind, as the current location which was donated to them by the Municipality is becoming derelict and they will have to vacate the premises shortly due to the LLRW cleanup which is set to begin in 2018.
The lack of the Municipality of Port Hope's Council to save this one-of-a-kind museum is troubling to the Board. It should be noted however, that councils are not in the business of providing long-term funding for local projects and the $750,000 request from the Board to Council several months ago towards the purchase of the CTC property was turned down.
