Deal between government and museum to ensure forgotten B.C. documents archived

VICTORIA – The B.C. government has made a funding agreement to ensure that 33,000 boxes of important documents will finally be archived.

The deal with the Royal British Columbia Museum means court records, executive correspondence and documents about commissions of inquiry can be archived.

The government says it will provide up to $400,000 a year to the museum to pay for arranging, cataloguing and preserving newly transferred and future records.

It says the museum will cover such costs for previously transferred archival records from its existing budget.

Amrik Virk, the minister of technology, innovation and citizens services, says the archives will teach future generations and researchers about why things are the way they are now.

Last July, B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham released a report saying she was shocked to learn that no government records had been preserved for 10 years.