Senator Jerry Grafstein, shown Aug. 22, 2006, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no 'popular mandate' to kill cultural projects. (Canadian Press)

Senator Jerry Grafstein has not given up on a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada, even if the federal government is ready to bury the idea.

Calling the federal government's handling of the issue a "cultural scandal," the Liberal senator said he won't agree the gallery is dead until both houses of Parliament make the decision.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no "popular mandate" to kill cultural projects, Grafstein said in an interview with Q, CBC's cultural affairs show.

"I didn't see this in their policy or program," he said. "I believe that they have no mandate not to have a portrait gallery. They're a minority government."

Last week, the tens of thousands of paintings and photographs that are in the gallery collection were made part of the programs branch of Library and Archives Canada and the gallery's director lost her job.

But library and archives head Daniel Caron insisted "the status of the Portrait Gallery of Canada has not been changed."

Grafstein, who was part of the original team that convinced then prime minister Jean Chrétien that Canada needed a portrait gallery, called that interpretation of events ludicrous.

"It's not a program. It requires a physical place — we're the only country in the world that doesn't have a portrait gallery," he said, speaking from Washington.

The gallery was to be housed in the former U.S. embassy in Ottawa and an architect had been selected in an international design contest before the Harper government put the project on hold.

The Heritage Ministry invited cities across Canada to bid on the project, but then said none of the bids was acceptable.

Grafstein said the whole process has been a waste of taxpayers' money.

"Here's a national treasure and it's accessible, doable, seeable, but it's being hidden by a conspiracy of I-don't-know-what by the government to make sure the Canadian public doesn't ever take a look at tens of thousands of paintings," he said.

Grafstein said he plans to reintroduce a bill in the Senate to restore the idea that Canada's huge photo and portrait collection needs a place to be exhibited.

Already, patrons and artists who have donated to the collection are threatening to withdraw their donations because no one will ever see them, he said.

Grafstein said he cannot believe there is not more public outrage at the government's decision. Part of the problem is that it needs a powerful political lobby, he said, adding that he has requested a meeting with Heritage Minister James Moore on the issue.

"We don't have a lobby for visual artists and the reason for that is that visual artists are not very wealthy; they work from commission to commission," he said.