News

Saskatchewan is home to hundreds of designated heritage sites, hundreds of museums, and many heritage-related organizations and societies. Many of these places rely on volunteer labour, which, at a time when people cannot afford to devote as much of their free time to volunteer activities, is no longer sustainable. The three authors of this blog were hired to research the heritage sector in Saskatchewan over the summer of 2024. We spoke with people from across Saskatchewan who work and volunteer (in a variety of ways) in heritage. Two things that became evident in our discussions are the need for operational funds and additional staff to allow Saskatchewan’s heritage places and organizations to thrive, or at least keep the doors open. This is true of many heritage sites, organizations, and museums, but is especially true of those run by volunteers, who are stretched thin and would benefit from full-time staff to reach their full potential. As emerging heritage practitioners, we want to highlight our experience in the heritage sector, and discuss what we have discovered during our research into current heritage volunteering, funding, and processes.

Of designated sites, the majority in Saskatchewan are municipally designated, and so are stewarded by local government. However, smaller municipalities struggle to maintain and protect their heritage sites due to the lack of funding, available manpower, and access to heritage-specific skill sets. Our research shows that having full-time staff can aid in successfully finding funding, creating programming, and marketing sites to the broader public, to name a few things on an exhaustive list. There is a need for heritage-specific education and skills in the province, especially as heritage designations increase with no increase to funding available for them.   

A consistent theme that came up throughout our research is the loss of knowledge that often accompanies an aging volunteer base. Workers at heritage sites, museums, and organizations are frequently stretched thin and rely on volunteers to fill gaps, with volunteers often taking on the workload of a paid position. Frequently, there is a reliance on Young Canada Works funding or similar funding streams with age restrictions that only fund short-term contracts. To ensure that the needs of communities and heritage organizations are met, a larger investment from the provincial government is needed for long-term, permanent positions in the heritage sector. Providing these opportunities is essential for retaining heritage practitioners in our communities, rather than having them exit the province for more viable opportunities.  

COVID-19 had a negative impact on the number of volunteers who returned to their roles after the pandemic, leading to a drop in institutional and governance expertise. Many volunteers we spoke with have volunteered with the same heritage site for many years and have been involved in diverse roles, developing skills and knowledge necessary to operate and maintain these sites effectively. These experienced volunteers are stepping down from their roles and there are no volunteers to replace them. With insufficient funding to hire workers to fill those gaps, heritage sites face the threat of both losing institutional knowledge and complete site closure.  

To cover staffing during peak season, many museums, historic sites, and other non-profit organizations throughout Saskatchewan rely on employment funding from sources such as Young Canada Works (YCW), Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ), and ICOMOS – Youth in Heritage funding. These funding programs are extremely useful for young people to gain early career experience. Unfortunately, the positions funded by these programs come with an age limit of 16-30 for YCW and 15-30 for CSJ and ICOMOS; once someone turns 31, they are excluded from these programs. This is restrictive for individuals who are looking to gain experience after aging out; this age range feels arbitrary and there is little funding to encourage practitioners over the age of thirty to join the heritage workforce. Opportunities to gain relevant and paid experience become limited as these programs fund many available heritage jobs in Saskatchewan. We welcome these early career funding programs and would like to see an increase in funding for mid-career or re-training opportunities.  

The result: problems for both emerging heritage practitioners and the organizations looking to employ them. For instance, short-term contracts create constant turnover, limiting the growth of the institutional knowledge and memory of the projects and tasks worked on (Bredbenner et al. 2024:139).  Short-term contracts frequently only allow for small projects that (from personal experience) end up dropped in subsequent years, never come to fruition, or take longer as new staff must pick up part way through. Furthermore, it is not always guaranteed that these organizations will receive this funding, which makes work precarious for emerging practitioners, and for the operation of the sites themselves. Small staff teams make it difficult for organizations to consistently provide services year-round, like tours or educational programming, when students and interns conduct these activities on short-term contracts. Short-term contracts and internships are not sustainable; they do not provide the security and stability of permanent, full-time employment.   

When full-time, permanent heritage positions become available in Saskatchewan, the competition is intense. Many Saskatchewan heritage practitioners end up leaving the province or the sector altogether due to the lack of permanent work in this province; if you ask any heritage worker, they can tell you how many of their former colleagues are still around. Additionally, there are fewer opportunities for heritage-specific post-secondary education in Saskatchewan, leading many prospective heritage practitioners to seek this education elsewhere. For those who receive their education out of the province, many do not return due to the lack of long-term employment options.   

Many heritage practitioners earn low wages and often struggle with balancing the constant hunt for contracts with concerns like purchasing a home or starting a family without access to a pension or healthcare benefits. Moreover, many practitioners have advanced degrees or a number of years of experience in order to have the skills needed to work in the heritage sector, but are not adequately compensated for their skillsets. Even comparing similar positions offered in Saskatchewan with those offered in other provinces, heritage practitioners make less here.  

For example, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum recently had a posting for a collections manager. The requirements for this position included skills gained from a master’s degree, including experience with archaeological lab and field methods, cataloguing and database use, and an understanding of museology. The compensation for this role was listed as an hourly rate of $27.624 - $34.617 (approximately $53,622 - $67,197 per year), with a limited full-time contract of 9 months or more. The Royal Alberta Museum recently listed a posting for a collections manager with similar skills and education requirements, with a permanent full-time contract and a compensation of $70,320 - $92,338. The difference between these two compensation amounts, not to mention the fact that the RSM position is not a permanent contract, is quite significant.   

How is the Saskatchewan heritage sector supposed to retain quality applicants when opportunities like this exist just one province over? We heard from our communities how much the work is needed. We ourselves care deeply about our heritage in Saskatchewan and love our work. We also heard how much work volunteers do and how much stress many of them carry. Volunteering should be enjoyable! With no one coming to replace the current volunteers, we will have to fill this with workers. But where do we get the funding for those jobs?

Heritage organizations cannot function properly without experienced heritage practitioners. Experience comes from education and work opportunities. At the 2023 National Trust for Canada conference in Ottawa, veteran heritage activist Phyllis Lambert said, “heritage is people”. With the lack of opportunities in Saskatchewan, we, along with many others, feel uncertain about the future in this province. We want so desperately to meet the needs of our communities, but there is only so much unpaid and underpaid time we can spare. If Saskatchewan cannot sustain heritage jobs, we will lose our heritage. Without heritage masons and carpenters, our buildings will deteriorate. Without collection specialists and architects, our tangible heritage will go uncared for. Without the funds to hire people to do the huge amount of work volunteers once did in stewarding their community’s heritage, those places and activities will disappear – parents and grandparents will no longer be able to take their kids to the local museum, historic site, or festival that they grew up going to. We need more provincial and federal investment in the heritage sector to create more sustainable employment and meet the needs of everyone. Heritage fosters community togetherness: it bridges the gap between generations and provides an avenue for newcomers to create a sense of community. Without added financial investment, our communities, our traditions, and our stories, will slowly fade away.

Works Referenced:

Bredbenner, Alison Fulmer, Rose Oliveira-Abbey, and Meghan R. Rinn. 2024. “The Career     Does Not Love     You Back”: Impacts of Contingent Employment on Workers, Cultural Heritage Institutions, and     the Archival Profession. The American Archivist 87(1):131-154.

Goddard-Bowman, Rebecca. 2014. Something Old is Something New: The Role of             Heritage Preservation in Economic Development. Papers in Canadian Economic Development     9:96–109.