{"id":544131,"date":"2026-03-18T08:28:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:28:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:28:54","slug":"ottawa-gives-1m-boost-to-planned-mikmaw-cultural-centre-in-nova-scotia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544131\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa gives $1M boost to planned Mi\u2019kmaw cultural centre in Nova Scotia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For decades, Mi\u2019kmaw Elder Don Julien has been part of the vision for the Mi\u2019kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe needed a place where [our] stories could be told properly, in our own voices and &#8230; we could learn about the long history of Mi&#8217;kma&#8217;ki and the presence here in the region,\u201d Julien said at a federal announcement in Millbrook First Nation on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s taken a long time to come to fruition, but with the announcement of another $1 million in funding from the federal government \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/innovation-science-economic-development\/news\/2026\/03\/minister-valdez-announces-federal-funding-to-boost-indigenous-tourism.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:part of a $6-million package;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;part of a $6-million package&quot;}\" class=\"link \">part of a $6-million package<\/a> to support Indigenous tourism in Canada \u2014 Julien\u2019s dream is one step closer to becoming a reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The boost in funding comes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/housing-infrastructure-communities\/news\/2025\/10\/federal-government-invests-in-new-mikmaw-cultural-centre-in-debert.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:after a $9-million investment;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;after a $9-million investment&quot;}\" class=\"link \">after a $9-million investment<\/a> in the centre from Ottawa last October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSupporting Indigenous tourism is part of economic reconciliation,\u201d MP Rechie Valdez, Canada\u2019s secretary of state for small business and tourism, said at the announcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen it myself increase tremendous opportunities for Indigenous entrepreneurs. It supports our local businesses and brings visitors to diverse communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A rendering of the planned Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre was shown at the federal funding announcement on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/95c0cc0cbb8a446c59aa654c5be7048f.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>(Luke Ettinger\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When it opens, the Mi\u2019kmawey Debert Cultural Centre will offer educational workshops, language and storytelling sessions, and celebrate more than 10,000 years of Mi&#8217;kmaw history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It will also become the new home for thousands of artifacts that have long been held in museums far from the province like the National Museum of the American Indian and the Canadian Museum of History.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The $49-million project is expected to go to tender this spring, said Tim Bernard, executive director for the Mi\u2019kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cOnce we receive and negotiate the bid, with the successful construction companies, we\u2019re looking at a July [or] August shovel in the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The centre is still $10 million short of its funding target, but Bernard said he\u2019s optimistic it will be reached.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/nova-scotia\/mi-kmawey-cultural-centre-community-debert-1.6044248\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Originally slated to open in 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Originally slated to open in 2025&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Originally slated to open in 2025<\/a>, he said the centre is now expected to be open by November 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, Mi\u2019kmaw Elder Don Julien has been part of the vision for the Mi\u2019kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,212219,212218,212221,20739,212220],"class_list":["post-544131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-debert-cultural-centre","tag-elder-don-julien","tag-indigenous-entrepreneurs","tag-ottawa","tag-tim-bernard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}