MHV seeks city funding boost

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Mennonite Heritage Village is hoping to see a large increase to their core grant from the City of Steinbach.

Executive Director Gary Dyck spoke to city council at their November strategic priorities committee meeting as he offered an update on the museum, while asking for more funds.

He told council that Trip Advisor now ranks MHV as the second highest attraction in Manitoba outside of Winnipeg and excluding Churchill.

Of the 1,000 attractions, only Riding Mountain National Park beats out MHV in the ranking in rural Manitoba.

“That’s saying something,” he said.

He also told council the museum gets 50,000 visitors annually, admitting later after questions that was a pre-COVID number.

In 2023 from January to August MHV received 35,000 visitors. Dyck said he expects the final tally on the year to be about 40,000. That number does not consider special events such as weddings and conferences.

Of the total attendance through August of this year, 18,500 people come from Steinbach and area, 7,100 come from other parts of Canada, and 8,400 come from other parts of the world.

He told council staff is stretched thin as they’ve taken on more in recent years.

Dyck said their core funding grant from the city is $55,000.

He asked for that to be increased to $70,000, a 27 percent increase.

Dyck told council that in the last seven or eight years they’ve seen their property taxes increase from $20,000 to $34,000, a 70 percent increase. That number includes both municipal and education taxes.

“During that time our core grant has only grown by 10 percent,” he said.

Dyck also offered council another alternative to the funding increase, saying they could instead waive the property taxes, something that’s typical in many communities.

MHV is the only museum that is one of Manitoba’s seven signature museums that does not have their property tax waived.

The museum also gets an annual operating grant through Endow Manitoba, thanks to a fund the provincial government set up.

Last year’s grant was $68,000 and Dyck said it goes up annually, expecting it to total at least $70,000 next year.

Celebrations planned

Dyck also told the city they would love to partner on hosting a celebration for the 150th anniversary since Steinbach was settled in 2024.

Tentative plans for the museum are to host a two-day canoe trek from Fort Dufferin to the Mennonite landing site, hold an ox trek from Mennonite landing to the Schantz sheds and continue on the peace trail to the museum.