By Canadian Press

Vote on fate of Dionne quintuplets home postponed

Feb 22, 2017 | 11:00 AM

NORTH BAY, Ont. — A decision on the fate of the northeastern Ontario home where the Dionne quintuplets were born has been postponed.

North Bay city council was slated to vote Tuesday night on a proposal that would see the home moved to a nearby community and its contents handed over to museums and universities.

Instead, councillors decided to create a special review committee to make recommendations on the future of the home and the items. The committee is expected to report back by April 4.

The home has been moved in the past. It was bought by the city of North Bay and brought there from the nearby community of Corbeil in 1985, then turned into a museum dedicated to the family’s story.

The Dionne Museum has been closed to the public since the city’s chamber of commerce ceased to run it in 2015, and the city says it doesn’t have the resources to operate it.

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A proposal to transfer the museum to an agricultural society in nearby Strong, Ont., has faced widespread public opposition — including from the two surviving quintuplets, who argue their legacy must be preserved.

The quintuplets were born in 1934 – the first quintuplets to survive more than a few days. The Ontario government took them from their parents and placed them in a special hospital where they spent the first nine years of their lives, and where they served as a tourist attraction that poured roughly $500 million into provincial coffers.

The Canadian Press