Our Association of Manitoba Museums is very concerned with succession. Not all of our museums are going to be with us 25 years from now; that is a fact. Hopefully, those artifacts can find a new home and we can find a way of working with other museums, both nationally and provincially significant museums, so that those communities can still have that bit of their history shared and have a chance to be able to bring the artifacts home from time to time.
Our definition of museums will probably change. In Manitoba we have a number of non-traditional museums that are on the way. Our first nations and indigenous peoples are starting to deal with the collections that you're talking about now—the oral history, so that it can become digitized.
We are looking for a national policy to start with. It's critical for Manitoba to have a provincial strategy so we can work with our communities. We need the leadership from around this table and, I'm going to say, from around this room as well—from the department, from the governments, from our leaders, and from our communities.
You said many years ago that the Shriners put together an endowment plan. They were recognizing the future. We need to do that now, and if endowment plans are the solution, they take time to build, and we're losing things. So, please, if you can, give us a national museums policy so that we can work provincially and in our communities.
That's it.