Tibor Lukacs and Canadian Museum Immigration Pier Halifax

Canada: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan HALIFAX - Tibor Lukacs remembers the day he first set foot inside Pier 21 as a young Hungarian refugee — and the many days and nights he spent at the immigration facility in the months that followed. "I lived in this particular building for five and a half months when we arrived in Canada in 1958," said Lukacs. "In a way, I call it home." The newly-renovated Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax officially reopened Thursday, following a $30 million expansion, according to Brandon Sun. The building on the Halifax waterfront was the entry point for close to one million immigrants to Canada between 1928 and 1971. The facility has been renovated as part of a $30-million expansion that celebrates Canada era of immigration with an emphasis on the period from 1928 to 1971. When he arrived as a child, Lukacs says there were no other accommodations available so he was housed at the immigration facility. "We were given everything, for which we are very grateful," he said, fondly recalling walking to his new school each day from the pier. The immigration facility was restored as a heritage site in the 1990s, a project spearheaded by Ruth Goldbloom. This week he came back to Halifax from Ontario to attend the reopening ceremony after the museum expansion. "It absolutely awesome ... you need lots of time to go through this and decipher it bit by bit and reflect on what you have experienced," said Lukacs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.