Bill C-651 (Historical)

Canadian Railway Museum Act

An Act to amend the Museums Act in order to establish the Canadian Railway Museum

This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in August 2015.

Sponsor

Sylvain Chicoine  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Jan. 28, 2015
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment amends the Museums Act to establish a corporation called the Canadian Railway Museum. It also sets out the purpose, capacity and powers of the Canadian Railway Museum and makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Canadian Railway Museum ActRoutine Proceedings

January 28th, 2015 / 3:15 p.m.


See context

NDP

Sylvain Chicoine NDP Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-651, An Act to amend the Museums Act in order to establish the Canadian Railway Museum.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher for agreeing to second this bill. I am particularly pleased to rise in the House on behalf of the people of Châteauguay—Saint-Constant in order to introduce my second bill, entitled An Act to amend the Museums Act in order to establish the Canadian Railway Museum.

The Canadian railway museum, known as Exporail in Saint-Constant, is the largest railway museum in Canada. Moreover, according to several museum curators, it is one of the best in the world. Given the pivotal role played by railways in the creation of the Canadian federation, I believe that it is important for Canada to have its own official museum dedicated to telling the history of the country and the role of trains in creating this federation. I would also like to remind members that in 2007, the House voted in favour of the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which recommended that Exporail be officially designated as the national railway museum and that it be allocated long-term funding.

Clearly, the current government has always refused to act on the motion and recognize Exporail as the Canadian railway museum.

The museum is in dire need of stable, predictable funding in order to maintain its collection. It would also be an important means of celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)