Before I answer the latter part of the question, Statistics Canada does report on donations and sponsorships, and what it reports is that the small museums across the country, those under $100,000, actually do receive quite a lot through donations and sponsorships from individuals. As you move up to the larger museums, they are more likely to get the major donations from companies, or the major sponsorships from companies. Only one of the national museums currently has a foundation that can receive that type of gift, and that's the National Gallery. So right now, in terms of the competition between the national institutions and others, there is evidence that there is more money going into the non-federal institutions than into the federal ones from donations and sponsorships.
In terms of the small museums, it's true, currently the programs that have been established in relation to the existing policies generally require that museums be professionally managed. This means the equivalent of at least one-full time staff member. Many require the institutions to be open or at least accessible all year round, to have three-year business plans, and to have the full suite of museological policies.
In terms of what we do with the smaller museums, a number of the museum associations bring forward proposals to work with groups of museums in their areas that may be smaller, so there's benefit from that. I mentioned the community memories program under the Virtual Museum, which is specifically targeted at institutions with no more than three full-time employees. And museums that are entirely volunteer-run are eligible to make proposals to that program.
The Canadian Conservation Institute certainly does workshops and training. There are other projects. In Newfoundland last year the Heritage Information Network worked with the provincial association and the community museums in Newfoundland to develop strategies for low-cost documentation of collections so that these museums could add their artifacts to the national inventory of museum collections.
So those are the elements that are currently available.
I'm at a bit of a disadvantage to speculate on future decisions by government, but I'm happy to answer questions about existing measures.