Dissonance Series: Heritage Isn’t a Handoff

Another quiet transfer. Another heritage institution caught in the crosshairs of municipal decision-making.

This time, it’s Peel Region. A Peel Regional Council motion passed to transfer ownership of the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) to the City of Brampton, with no public consultation, no heritage review process, and no estimation of financial costing. Council says it’s “streamlining.”

As someone who has just spent weeks costing out a similar transition in granular detail for the City of Leduc—from historical society to unified municipal operator—I can tell you plainly: it’s never cheaper or easier inside a municipality. Public salary grids, higher service expectations, and increased compliance costs—such as HVAC, security, duty to provide access, and Category “A” collections care—all change the math. Significantly. Here’s why.

While large municipal bodies are great at providing general services to most citizens (think snow removal, recreation facilities, and transit services), what they’re not always great at is providing specialized services in niche delivery models. Research shows that general-purpose municipalities excel at broad, standardized functions but struggle with specialized or high-complexity services that require deep domain expertise, adaptability, or cross-sectoral coordination (Lamothe & Lamothe, 2025; Goodman, 2023).

Studies across North America and Europe have shown that municipalities often delegate or “outsource” specialized services, ranging from utilities and emergency response to arts and cultural management, to special districts, arm’s-length entities, or non-profit partners to achieve better responsiveness and efficiency (Greer, Moldogaziev, & Scott, 2018; OECD, 2023). These bodies are structured to deliver narrow mandates with flexibility and professional expertise; qualities especially difficult to maintain within large bureaucratic frameworks optimized for uniform service provision. In the cultural sector, particularly in the UK and Canada, local governments increasingly use arm’s-length external organizations (ALEOs) to deliver arts, heritage, and recreation services, balancing financial sustainability with community engagement and accountability (Audit Scotland, 2024).

But the bigger issue? It’s not just what’s being done. It’s how.

Running a gallery, museum, or archive isn’t a great civic side hustle. It requires governance, policy, and deep-rooted trust—especially when Indigenous relationships, community donations, and historical trauma are part of the collection’s legacy.

Which brings me to Halton, which I discussed previously in this series.

Earlier this year, that council, too, decided behind closed doors to dissolve its heritage unit. Here’s what came next: they’ve opened the next chapter with a public RFP. An invitation: Not a conclusion. It’s an opportunity to bring in expertise, to engage stakeholders, to rethink the system. As Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

These aren’t just “assets.” They’re trust objects. They belong to the public. To descendants. To the future.

If Brampton wants to see PAMA thrive in its downtown cultural hub, the path forward isn’t technical, it’s relational. It’s not about ownership. It’s about stewardship.

📖 [Link to CBC article]

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#HeritageMatters #CivicEthics #PublicTrust #CulturalStewardship #MunicipalHeritage #MuseumGovernance #Archives #CollectionsCare #Halton #Brampton #AdaptiveReuse #DissonanceSeries

References

• Audit Scotland. (2024). Arm’s-length external organisations (ALEOs): are you getting it right? Audit Scotland.
• Goodman, C. B. (2023). Are special districts strategic complements or strategic substitutes? Public Administration Review, 84(4), 623-636.
• Greer, R. A., Moldogaziev, T. T., & Scott, T. A. (2018). Polycentric governance and the impact of special districts on fiscal common pools. International Journal of the Commons,, 12(2).
• Lamothe, M., & Lamothe, S. (2025). What Options Are Available for Delivering Public Services, and How Do Local Governments Choose Between Them? Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, 5(3), 89.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2023). Serving citizens: Measuring performance of local public services. OECD Publishing.