Historic Miramichi homestead closed after province cuts funding
Group requested $150,000, and province offered $60,000
As the sun beats down on a hot July day, a cool breeze drifts off the mighty Miramichi River flowing past the fields of the MacDonald Farm.
But something is amiss.
The grasses around the property appear to be overtaking the grounds, and the once lively site is beginning to feel abandoned.
This summer, the farm built in the early 19th century, will not be running, a first for the site in more than a decade.
The province has owned MacDonald Farm since the 1970s, and ran it as a working farm interpretive centre until 2010.
Starting in 2012, the Highland Society of New Brunswick at Miramichi took over running the farm, with a provincial grant each year.
But this year, a disagreement over funding will keep it closed.
"You don't see the actual beauty that lies here because it's quiet," said Dawn Lamkey MacDonald, president of the Highland Society of New Brunswick at Miramichi. "There are no children running around, there's no fiddlers playing on the stage, there's no piper playing.
"We are a completely volunteer committee that operates this site and we just felt that having to fight to keep this site open is not something that we have the energy to do anymore."
Since 2012, the society has received an annual grant of $60,000 from the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture. Last year, the grant increased to $100,000 in a one-year agreement, and this year, Lamkey MacDonald said, the board requested $150,000 because of rising costs.
Late response from province
But the department came back with its old offer of $60,000, which Lamkey MacDonald said isn't enough to run the farm. The board decided to reject the offer and to stop working with the province.
Even if the government had come through with the requested funding, negotiations were left too late, she said.
Emails shared with CBC News from Lamkey MacDonald show her asking on March 14 to meet to discuss this year's budget. She said the society didn't get a response until May 30, when Melanie Deveau, the assistant deputy tourism minister, lined up a meeting for June 2.
Lamkey MacDonald said the group usually begins to plan for the summer in April and prepares the property in May to open for school trips June 1. The full public normally can begin to visit by the third week of June.
The historical centre was created at the homestead of Alexander MacDonald, a Scottish immigrant who was given the land in the early 1800s and built and worked the farm with his family. The property is located just northeast of Miramichi on Route 11.
Every year, the society hosts a large Christmas gathering, a Scottish festival and many others events. It supplements its budget by hosting weddings, school trips, church picnics and gift shop sales.
The farm has hired local students and maintenance workers and keeps farm animals on the property all summer.
"There would be 500 people, maybe 600 people that would be walking these grounds," Lamkey MacDonald said of the Scottish festival held at the farm. The pipe band coming up over the hill playing the pipes and the drums, the fiddlers on the stage, local highland dancers that come here every year and perform.
"These things are going to be lost on this site. They will still exist somewhere else, but the connection here is going to be lost if the farm does not continue."
Tourism, local MLA won't be interviewed
CBC News requested an interview with Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault or anyone from the department, but a spokesperson sent an email statement instead, thanking the society for its work running the farm..
The department "will be taking time to review the next steps for this site," the email said.
When asked why the budget was reduced, the spokesperson said last year's agreement for $100,000 was a one-year agreement made by the previous Progressive Conservative government.
Sam Johnston, the Liberal MLA for Miramichi Bay-Neguac, commented on the farm's Facebook announcement of its closure, saying he was "so sorry it has come to this" and he was hopeful the farm would reopen next year.
But when asked for an interview about the farm at an unrelated news conference in Miramichi on the same day, Johnston refused to answer questions about it.
Sad feelings in community
Lisa McCormack, who lives in Miramichi, said she has taken her son Chance, now 11, to the farm each summer for many years.
"He's done that every summer and in the hopes that when he got old enough, he'd be able to work there," she said.
"It's old-fashioned childhood, right? That was just the kind of a place to escape and just be a kid, you know, just the whole atmosphere."
McCormack said she and her family were saddened by the thought that other children would miss out on those childhood memories they had come to value so much.
Morgan Vickery worked at the farm during the summer from 2017 to 2019, and said it remains her favourite job she's ever worked.
From dressing up in traditional clothing as an interpreter to preparing for large events, she said she still holds memories from her time at the farm.
"We had like a little script of the history of the farm that we would read off to tell visitors about it. To this day I can still read off that from memory, it sticks with you."
Vickery said she hopes the province reconsiders, "because it's not just some theme park that's not opening. This is a part of our heritage and it's something that future generations, if they don't reconsider, they won't get to experience this like we did."
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