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Two prized collections at a museum in eastern Ontario no longer appear in danger of being carted off elsewhere, following a recent announcement.
Last week, the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) and the Municipality of Mississippi Mills — a cluster of communities about 50 kilometres southwest of Ottawa — said the municipality would take over operations of the Mill of Kintail Museum near Almonte and assume responsibility for its R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith collection, starting in 2028.
Naismith invented basketball while he was working with the YMCA in Massachusetts in 1891. He was also a lifelong friend of McKenzie, a sculptor, surgeon and trailblazer in the field of physiotherapy.
While details of the transfer still need to be worked out, the conservation authority said in a news release on Friday that the municipality is partnering with the MVCA to “keep the collections” in the community.
The Mill of Kintail Museum in Mississippi Mills, Ont., photographed on Aug. 12, 2025. (Ben Andrews/CBC)
For some, losing the items — including a deflated ancestor of the modern basketball — was a real fear one year ago.
At the time, the MVCA said that due to funding challenges stemming from changes in provincial legislation, it was exploring the idea of divesting itself of the collections and changing the focus of the museum.
But the conservation authority’s recent decision to accept the proposal from Mississippi Mills to take on responsibility for the collections has Christa Lowry, the municipality’s mayor, feeling “thrilled.”
The collections had been on a path that could have seen them leave the area, “and maybe even leaving Canada,” she told CBC’s Ottawa Morning on Tuesday.
Now the municipality will “be part of the solution,” she said, though she added it’s “very mindful of the burden on the taxpayer.”
“Having said that, we have a lot of opportunities that we’re really excited to be walking through,” she said, noting that “we have over a dozen partners that stood up with us to say that they’d like to support the municipality in this endeavor.”
LISTEN | Lowry’s full Ottawa Morning interview:
Ottawa Morning6:25Mississippi Mills strikes deal to preserve museum collections honouring inventor of basketball, physiotherapy pioneer
Details to come
The museum is located on a river outside Almonte in a grist mill that dates to 1830. McKenzie purchased the property in 1931, converting it to a summer home and naming it the Mill of Kintail.
The conservation authority has owned the mill and the McKenzie collection since 1972. It permanently acquired the Naismith collection in 2017.
Just two years later, the Ontario government passed the More Homes, More Choice Act, which clarified the mandate of conservation authorities in the province. According to the MVCA at the time, the legislation also stripped it of the ability to raise funding through a municipal levy.
That situation “made it impossible” for the MVCA to commit to the long-term operation of the museum, it said in the release announcing its partnership with Mississippi Mills.
“Given that discussions are still at an early stage, I will hold off on commenting on specific programming until we have had an opportunity to speak further with the municipality,” said Scott Lawryk, manager of programs and properties for the MVCA, via email.