The Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum will be cutting permanent staff levels by 18 per cent over the next three years due to cuts announced in the federal budget.
Avra Gibbs-Lamey, a spokesperson for the history museum — which also manages the war museum — told Radio-Canada that permanent staff will drop from 371 to 304.
Several of the positions being cut are corporate positions that deal with both institutions, she said. Management positions will be reduced by 24 per cent.
The job cuts will affect “a broad sweep” of staff, from executives to security personnel and staff who run tours, said Ruth Lau MacDonald, regional executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) for the National Capital Region.
That will likely impact the visitor experience, she said, as tours become more self-directed and interactions with subject experts less common.
“It’s really unfortunate to [potentially lose] people who can take you beyond what’s written on a plaque and really talk to you about the meaning and the history of an exhibit,” Lau MacDonald said.
The cuts will likely have a deleterious effect on the visitor experience, said Ruth Lau MacDonald, regional executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada for the National Capital Region. (Maxim Saavedra-Ducharme/Radio-Canada)
Gibbs-Lamey maintained the cuts would put the Canadian Museum of History in “a better position to focus on its mandate.”
“We remain firmly focused on our national mandate and will continue to advance research, develop world-class exhibitions and public experiences, and offer innovative new ways to connect Canadians with their history,” she said in a statement.
The reductions “are in line with the priorities of the Canadian Museum of History, which aims to improve efficiency and ensure greater long-term flexibility to fulfil its mandate,” wrote Ines Akué, a spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage, in an email to Radio-Canada.
Museum cuts a global trend, says expert
As part of the federal government’s comprehensive spending review, the Canadian Museum of History has to find annual savings from $2.4 million to $5.9 million.
Some Ottawa museums have been exempted, including the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
Dan Smythe, a spokesperson for the Canadian Museum of Nature, confirmed it’s also spared from budget cuts.
Funding reductions are a global trend as governments have gradually slashed funding, putting museums under increasing pressure to generate their own revenue, said Yves Bergeron, a professor of museum studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
“At some point, there’s a limit to generating self-generated revenue. You still need to have a minimum number of staff,” he said in a French-language interview.
Bergeron said one cost-saving measure would be to share resources, like having two institutions share the same archivist.
That could mitigate the impact to the visitor experience, he said.
Cars drive past the Canadian War Museum in 2016. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC)
Concerns about reconciliation
The Canadian Museum of History conducts research and fieldwork with Indigenous communities and is involved with repatriating Indigenous cultural artifacts once held by the Vatican.
MacDonald said she is concerned the cuts could impact the museum’s ability to do that work.
Depending on the extent of the cuts, Bergeron said repatriating artifacts could take a little longer, adding it’s a commitment the museum cannot abandon.
“It’s the Canadian Museum of History that has the responsibility to document them, to work with the communities to return them,” he said. “The responsibilities of national museums are significant.”
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak places her hand on Indigenous and cultural artifacts in Montreal in December 2025 after they were returned to Canada by the Vatican. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
Gibbs-Lamey said projects related to reconciliation remain a priority for the museum.
“Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples remains at the heart of the museum’s mission, and that does not change. The budget adjustments are in no way intended to reduce this commitment,” she wrote.
“The cuts do not diminish the importance we place on this fundamental history.”