SHERBROOKE – Historic Sherbrooke Village is pressing ahead with a plan to expand programming, find new sources of revenue and broaden its reach, despite a 20 per cent provincial funding cut that has already reduced its workforce.
The 2026-28 strategic plan, which was scheduled to be presented to the community Aug. 18, calls for new visitor experiences, stronger local partnerships, greater financial stability and renewed investment in the people and traditional skills that support the living history museum.
Executive director York Lethbridge said the plan was largely completed last year, before the province cut approximately $460,000 from Sherbrooke Village’s $2.3-million annual operating grant. “It certainly is not built in response to it,” he told The Journal last week.
The funding decision nevertheless changed the circumstances in which the plan will now unfold.
Lethbridge said the cut “threw the administration into a bit of chaos” and prompted the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission to consider whether it should revisit the strategy.
Ultimately, he said, commissioners concluded that “the priorities for the organization are consistent, even if our capacity to meet those obligations or ambitions might be compromised by the substantial funding cut that we’ve received.”
That reduced capacity is already showing.
Lethbridge said Sherbrooke Village has eliminated 16 positions since the cut was announced. Some were vacancies that will not be filled, while others involved job losses. He declined to specify the number of layoffs, citing the effect on employees in a small community, but said virtually every part of the operation has been affected.
“We normally strive for at least 70 employees within our budget each year,” he said. “We’re now hovering right around 50.”
For now, he said, the priority is maintaining the quality of the museum’s core programming and visitor experience while adjusting operations to the new financial reality.
The strategic plan looks beyond that immediate challenge.
One of its central goals is to diversify revenue through new uses of the 53-acre site, special events and other offerings tied to the museum’s heritage mandate.
Lethbridge pointed to weddings, the Village gift shop and restaurant, as well as its year-round woodworking and restoration operation.
That shop already undertakes outside heritage work. Lethbridge said crews recently completed a contract involving reproduction work and installation for a courthouse in Halifax and regularly produce windows and doors for churches, institutional buildings and other heritage properties. “There’s no reason why individuals can’t come to us for that, for their own homes and other projects,” he said.
But, he added, expanding that work will depend on staffing. “We were on a capacity-building trajectory. Employing people, especially skilled trades, is really a priority here, and the funding cut has curtailed those efforts.”
The plan also calls for a new site-wide approach to interpretation, including research into stories and communities that are not fully represented in the museum’s programming. Lethbridge said that does not mean replacing the stories Sherbrooke Village already tells. “It just recognizes that there’s an incredibly deep history that exists here. And we’re really only touching the tip of the iceberg.”
Other objectives include expanding off-season activities, maintaining Christmas at Sherbrooke Village as a sustainable event, developing digital experiences, establishing site-wide accessible internet and strengthening partnerships with community organizations and tourism operators.
The Village also plans to develop a formal volunteer program, identify heritage craft skills that may be at risk and create succession and training plans to help retain expertise in restoration, interpretation and traditional trades.
At the same time, Lethbridge insisted the museum must be careful not to compete with businesses beyond its gates. “We really want to bolster and support our neighbours as best as possible,” he said, particularly when considering food, accommodation and other tourism-related offerings.
The new strategy arrives 20 years after Sherbrooke Village’s last strategic plan and at a difficult point for the museum, which also faces an estimated $7.6 million in deferred maintenance on provincially owned heritage buildings.
Lethbridge said some of the original timetable will inevitably have to change as the Village works with fewer people and less operating money.
Still, the direction remains.
“The plan very clearly articulates the ambitions that we have,” he said, “even though we still have to make some adjustments to the roadmap that we plan to follow to achieve them.”
