Canadian Heritage Committee on March 20th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Today, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying the expenditure plans for Canadian Heritage in 2012-13.

We have here with us once again the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

Welcome to you, Minister.

We will turn the floor over to you now for your opening remarks.

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, colleagues.

Joining me is my deputy minister, Daniel Jean, and also Robert Hertzog.

It's Robert's birthday today, so happy birthday to him.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

I know this is how he's always envisioned spending his birthday. It's safe to say his birthday will get better from here.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for inviting me to join you today and for giving me the opportunity to discuss arts and culture in Canada. Since we are on a tight schedule, I will be brief.

As I said earlier, I am accompanied by Daniel Jean, Deputy Minister, and Robert Hertzog, Director General of the Financial Management Branch at Canadian Heritage.

Tomorrow our government will table our budget. It's a budget that's focused on what we believe is most important to Canadians, which is creating jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity. It will support this while also returning us to a balanced budget by 2015.

We will build on what we have already delivered for arts and culture across Canada and the importance of arts and culture to the quality of life of all Canadians, and indeed to the Canadian economy.

This includes our choices to increase and then maintain funding through a period of fiscal restraint for the Canada Council for the Arts. It includes renewing and locking in for five years all of our programs across the government that support arts and culture.

We passed strong and balanced copyright legislation that received praise from creators and consumers.

We have created two new national museums outside the National Capital Region—the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, in Halifax, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, in Winnipeg. We are in the process of creating a third museum—the Canadian Museum of History, here, in Ottawa.

The only thing I would like to say further on this, because I know this committee will have further discussions about our government's proposal to create a Canadian museum of history—again, just to underline what I've said in the past—is that I believe this is an issue. The Canadian museum of history should be treated like the Canadian Museum of Immigration, as well as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. It's an issue that in my view, frankly, should be beyond partisanship.

I look forward to the genuine input from the opposition on the legislation we've put forward to create that museum and their suggestions on how the mandate of the museum might be improved and tweaked. We think the celebration and support for an institution that is pan-Canadian in focus—to celebrate, educate, talk about, and continue the study of Canada's history—is a very important exercise. We should all be very proud of that as we head towards Canada's 150th birthday in 2017.

We have also doubled the annual indemnification limit—from $1.5 billion to $3 billion—to support our museums and art galleries across the country.

We have done all that while at the same time making the Department of Canadian Heritage leaner and simplifying the application process for Canadian arts organizations.

As a result of our efforts, I am proud to say that the arts in Canada are thriving. They're doing incredibly well.

Two weeks ago, as a matter of fact, at the Prime Time conference that was held in Ottawa by the Canadian Media Production Association, their report was tabled, entitled Profile 2012: An Economic Report on the Screen-based Production Industry in Canada. In that report they noted that Canada's film and television production sector grew by over half a billion dollars last year, from $2.5 billion to $3 billion, a 20% increase that resulted in the creation of almost 70,000 well-paid jobs across Canada.

The volume of Canadian theatrical productions rose by 14% last year—a 10-year high. Theatrical production is an industry now worth over a third of a billion dollars to our economy each and every year. Canadian television production rose over 21% from 2011. That's a 10-year high of $2.58 billion. The Canadian documentary production in Canada also increased by 15%. It, too, is an industry with over a third of a billion dollars invested in Canada's economy: $369 million. Canadian animation and production increased as well, by 47% in 2011, to $208 million.

These numbers are the result of the efforts of Canadian creators combined with investments of our government, the private sector, and private philanthropy all coming together in support of Canada's creative economy. All told, with all of us working together, we have come an incredibly long way.

Sixty years ago in Canada this was not the case. For much of Canada's history, the creative economy was not understood and not supported by any level of government, and the results, quite frankly, were an embarrassment to this country.

In June 1951, the Massey Commission published one of the most significant reports on arts and culture in Canadian history. The report outlined how Canada's culture was crumbling and slipping into foreign hands.

One of the findings of the Massey Commission was that the only truly national publication in Canada was Reader's Digest, which was the sole magazine to reach households across the country. Of course, Reader's Digest consisted entirely of American content at that time.

Because of American dominance in the textbook industry, American textbooks filled Canadian classrooms. Canadian students of the day knew more about the 4th of July than about the 1st of July, more about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln than Sir John A. Macdonald, George Étienne Cartier, or George Brown. In fact, the largest collection of Canadian publications in the world were at the Library of Congress in Washington, the New York Public Library, and at Harvard University in Boston. The National Gallery of Canada at the time had a permanent staff of only four people. At the exact same time, at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, they had 26 full-time staffers.

In 1948 there were over 1,800 original works of fiction published in Great Britain, over 1,000 published in the United States, and in Canada there were exactly 14.

We have come an incredibly long way when it comes to supporting our culture. Some fantastic opportunities lie ahead of us over the next few months, as we prepare to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017.

The road to 2017 will allow us to tell Canada's stories to all Canadians. We should use Canada's 150th anniversary to stimulate our creative economy.

As my time here is brief, I will now turn it over to you for questions.

I do again want to thank the committee for inviting me to speak with you today. I think there's a great deal to be proud of in Canada's cultural communities—how far we have come since that Massey report, the great accomplishments that have been achieved by the creative sector in spite of incredibly difficult times, when we see larger and larger crowds coming out for festivals than ever before, and the philanthropic community stepping up and supporting things.

I think it's really important that this committee continue to do the great work it's done in the past, as we move forward to continue to support Canada's creative economy.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Minister, and thank you for your presentation.

Now we'll go to our time for questions and answers, and we'll start with Mr. Boughen.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Minister, gentlemen, welcome to our committee meeting. Good of you to take time to share part of the afternoon with us.

Minister, you talked about the Canadian Museum of Civilization. I'm just wondering if you can share with us what's happened lately in terms of feedback from Canadians who have been through the museum and took the time to give your office a call.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Sure. I appreciate the opportunity.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization, which will become the Canadian museum of history, is actually moving forward very well. Mark O’Neill, the president of the museum, and the board are now undertaking the hard work that it takes to build and to stand up this new museum that will be national in scope—not just as a great institution here in Ottawa, but one that has roots all across the country.

They've been going to cities across the country—I'm not sure if they have completed their entire tour yet—inviting Canadians to come in and participate in a dialogue about how Canadians.... Again, it's not my museum, it's not yours, it's not ours; it's the museum of Canadians. They've been going to Canadians and asking Canadians how they think Canadian history should best be told.

There are different ways, of course, to do that. If you look at different history museums around the country and around the world, you can take a chronological, thematic.... You can do thematics based on regions of the country, thematics based on different Canadian experiences, and so on. So they're having that discussion and dialogue with Canadians. They've been going around the country. The feedback has been great.

I know civilization.ca, which is the current website, has an online opportunity there for Canadians to engage. As part of this project, the Canadian museum of history is going to be.... They're signing MOUs with other history museums all around the country. I had the privilege, I believe it was just two weeks ago, to be in Victoria at the Royal BC Museum, where we signed the first MOU with another institution.

There were folks there. They had school kids there. The whole staff of the museum was there. They were enthusiastic about it, signing an MOU, which will open up to this museum the entire vault of the Canadian museum of history—over three million items, 90% of which are in storage right now—so that local museums across the country will have access to it and tell stories of Canada's history locally, not just here in Ottawa.

That's how we're going to bind this country together. There are three more museums that I can tell you we've signed MOUs with. We're going to be announcing them in the next couple of weeks in other regions of the country.

We're moving forward and it's going to be a great success. I hope that all parties will see this for what it is, which is an opportunity to build a pan-Canadian institution to talk about Canada's history.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Minister.

Question number two: how can the federal government and the Department of Canadian Heritage play a role in increasing Canada's awareness of its history? You talked about what's happening down south. How can we pull this together in our country and put it on display?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

About 10 years ago, Jack Granatstein had his great book, Who Killed Canadian History? I told Jack I didn't agree with the title of his book, though I agreed with the thesis of it. The title of the book was wrong: Canadian history is not dead; it's alive and well. It's not who killed Canadian history, or who is challenging Canadian history. It's what, and what is challenging Canadian history is system-wide; it's all levels of government walking away from the importance of teaching and talking about Canada's history.

It's a sad but true fact that only four of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories require students to take a history class in order to graduate from high school—New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. Other provinces teach social studies, but it's not specifically history in the way it has been historically, which is a frustrating thing. I know you're a former teacher, and it's something that frustrates you as well.

There's only so much the federal government can do. One thing we can do is build this institution that I've just described. The other thing we can do is work together on areas where we have agreement and can support funding for the celebration of events of large consequence. It was a national celebration, not a Quebec City celebration, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Quebec City. It's a national celebration next year to talk about the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. It was a national moment of recognition during Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee last year, and there are others to come in a few years.

We ought to seize those opportunities and talk about them. It's important for the government and all members of Parliament to understand that these things, in talking about the facts of Canada's history in an energetic way, have to be thoughtful, non-partisan, and responsible if they're going to be meaningful to Canadians. I think we'll come a long way towards filling the gaps that Jack Granatstein identified in his book.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Mr. Chair, how am I doing for time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

You're doing great. You have two minutes left.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Two minutes? Okay.

Minister, as you know, the centennial of World War I is approaching, as well as other important dates and battles fought during World War II. Could you speak on the importance, to Canada and the world, of recognizing these crucial events?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

We'll be coming forward with a plan on that very soon. The way we've divided it up, as a government—I don't think this is a secret—is that I'm responsible for domestic celebrations within Canada and the Minister of Veterans Affairs is responsible for celebrations and commemorations that will happen in Europe for the First World War. That's how it's traditionally been done, and we'll continue that.

I think this country made a real mistake in the past by not taking advantage of the fact that our First World War veterans were alive, allowing them to tell their stories, to digitize their stories, and to have made a proactive effort on that.

We're now working with the legions all across the country, reaching out to veterans, and asking them to come forward and tell their stories. We've already put funding forward for this, and we've announced a second tranche of funding for the Korean War as well. We are digitizing these stories, housing them at the Canadian War Museum, and putting them online so students can have access to them. These are stories of gallantry in battle, of service and self-sacrifice. They might be stories about how they met the love of their life and came home after the war and had a new beginning. There are stories of sorrow, courage, pride, and fear. We're working with the legions, reaching out to Second World War veterans and asking them to come forward and tell us their stories so we can digitize them, make them available to the next generation, so that their stories will forever be protected in Canada.

We missed that opportunity with the First World War, but this is the centennial of the beginning of the war, and I don't think we should miss the opportunity to tell the stories of the First World War to Canadians. So we'll be doing that with a commemoration program that I think all members of Parliament will embrace as something that is meaningful and respectful to those who fought for Canada.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Am I over time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

That's just about it.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Next we will move to Mr. Nantel for seven minutes.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Jean, Mr. Hertzog and Mr. Moore, thank you for accepting our invitation. Your visit is even more appreciated given that, normally, the members of this committee should have enough time to properly examine budgets and estimates. It's a good thing you are here to tell us about your goals. We have not yet seen the report on plans and priorities.

Don't you think it's a bit surprising that we are here even though we have not had an opportunity to study the estimates? Do you think it is acceptable that no report on plans and priorities has been submitted?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

This year's process is no different than it has been in past years.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Nevertheless, we are voting somewhat blindly. We could have had until May 31 to look into this more closely.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

The committee decides how to do its work. You invited me; I am here today and ready to answer your questions.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Very well. As I said, it is a good thing you are here.

My question is about the Council for the Arts.

If we look at the pages dedicated to the Council for the Arts, we see that $1 million has been cut from the budget.

It's under “Grants and services to support creation, production and dissemination....” It's on page II-18.

Clearly, that is a considerable loss of funds, but we're even more concerned about maintaining the $25-million contribution from Canadian Heritage.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Yes, the contribution will be maintained.

The Deputy Minister is telling me that the $1-million amount was part of the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. That initiative is ending in March 2013. As I said during the last hour in the House of Commons, we will renew the roadmap. As for the previous $1-million investment, that will be part of the new roadmap, which we will introduce very soon.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Will the Council for the Arts' total budget be maintained at $181 million?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Yes. That was one of my goals when, last year, we began the long process to find ways to save money within the government. The first thing I told my employees and my team—and I can now talk about this openly—was that I wanted to fully protect the investments in the Canada Council for the Arts.

I am sure you have heard the same statements I have. As the Auditor General has said in the past, the Canada Council for the Arts is an organization that does a good job and is respected by artists across the country. The council meets artists' expectations effectively and responsibly. We will certainly protect the investments in the Council for the Arts.