The 125th anniversary.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was centennial.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was centennial.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
No, I don't recall. I wasn't involved.
9:30 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
It's worth responding to you, as members of Parliament, that in 1967 it started in the Prime Minister's Office—in Mr. Pearson's office. He had a private secretary named Jack Hodgson. Jack Hodgson was a distinguished naval officer in the war, and he was an executive in the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Mr. Pearson handed Jack Hodgson this responsibility in 1967. It all started with one man. He did some consultation, and I believe somewhere along the line it had to start in the House of Commons, because that's where legislation starts. I remember when the draft bill went to the Department of Justice. I was around the Privy Council Office at the time. I remember the draft bill was all laid out there. Somebody did all the work, and I don't know how involved the members of Parliament really were. Had there been a committee like this, well, they'd have sure had lots of input.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Yes. I'm wondering about the commission itself. I know it's in here, but how independent was the commission? How was it structured?
9:30 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
The Centennial Commission? Of course, it was established by statutes to start with, and the Centennial Act was quite clear about what its purpose was. The members of the commission were well chosen from across the country to represent a broad spectrum of Canada. That didn't work very well, and we can talk about that a bit, because it's very important to see why that didn't work.
The members of the executive committee were very diligent. They met 52 times during 1967 and made the executive decisions very responsibly, I would say.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Jackson, you referred to Alberta's 100th anniversary and you said it fell flat. The reason you give is that it was top down. That may well be a reason, but I would like to hear if there were other reasons that you can think of for it falling flat.
9:30 a.m.
Chair, imagiNation 150 (Calgary)
Another way into that same thought is that I think as human beings we care about that which we help create. If it's simply a cocktail party, I'll come and we'll have a conversation, but if it's a potluck, we're into a much more intimate dynamic. In Alberta, some events travelled the province, but government would propose; there would be very little disposition by private sector or by not-for-profit or cultural sectors. There was very little pickup.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
What you're saying is there wasn't a lot of consultation with the broader society in advance?
9:30 a.m.
Chair, imagiNation 150 (Calgary)
I think there was consultation, but the feel of it was the premier of the government of the day throwing a party and we're invited, rather than the premier and the government of the day throwing out a challenge of how we were going to celebrate the very important anniversary of our province together. There was no legacy out of it, Mr. Cash. I suppose it's like Canada's 125th, so little was done with it.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
A period where among other things we were enjoying some of the greatest equality of income in our history was in 1967. Between World War II and 1977, the income share of the richest dropped from 14% of total income to just under 8%. By 2007, the richest share of total income had doubled. So that's a fundamental shift in our economy, and consequently in our society. How important is that income gap between 1967 and today to the pickup we're trying to create around the 150th?
9:35 a.m.
Chair, imagiNation 150 (Calgary)
I think you're going to get a spread of opinion, from a downtown Torontonian to a Calgarian. There will be somewhat different angles--
9:35 a.m.
Chair, imagiNation 150 (Calgary)
No, I think it is a very important issue. There may be some differences in how we might address it.
But to your point about education, Peter....
9:35 a.m.
Principal, MASS LBP
Let me just offer a very brief response. I don't think it's for any of us at this end of the table to offer an opinion on that. It really is for Canadians to decide. I think that's why an occasion like a sesquicentennial major milestone can be such an important opportunity to take stock of where we are.
In response to Mr. Brown's question about how you consult with Canadians, you don't just ask them what they want. You have to give them context to compare and contrast where we are today to where we've come from, to what some scenarios for our future might look like. Certainly, given that Canada is among the OECD countries becoming more unequal faster than all but Germany, it's probably an important context in which to situate this discussion.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
First of all, thanks for coming. I'm extremely impressed with the material in front of me, and I'll tell you why. The spirit in the late 1960s was something I was fascinated with. When I saw it on TV and reflected on it, there was a spirit that I think sparked all things Canadiana for the next 10, 15, 20 years, at least, if not more.
When I see the material that comes from that year, I'm impressed with how it was handled and the enthusiasm in the 1960s. Obviously the enthusiasm that was sparked from the year 1949, when Newfoundland joined Canada.... I may call for a vote on that pretty soon.
Anyway, what I like about this is there's this implicit challenge to ask people to become a Canadian, to challenge people to realize what they already know. We had a similar experience in 1997, in Newfoundland. We celebrated our 500 years of existence—when John Cabot discovered Newfoundland—and during that celebration we realized what kind of history we had. We realized the legacy was within the children in the schools, who now know far more about Newfoundland and Labrador than we did growing up in the 1980s.
I do like this because it says, “Carry it. Fly it. But above all, use it.” In the book—I haven't read your book, but I thank you again—there is a great ad that says “What can I do for centennial?” It suggests, “Fly my flag. Have a family reunion. Paint my house. Support local projects.” There's that impetus for people to actually do something, which I think Mr. Jackson was alluding to, about giving back to the country, but at the same time receiving.
One thing I do recall about the centennial, and it has stuck in my memory over the years.... We have about seven or eight Newfoundlanders playing in the NHL, and one of them won the Stanley Cup last year. They learned how to play hockey in the smallest of towns, in arenas that were built in 1967. So there's no limit to the legacy.
You mentioned a UFO landing. There's a small town in my riding by the name of Happy Adventure—I kid you not. It would be a good place to have a UFO landing, really.
But when you were deciding how to use these legacy projects, like arenas, structures that kids can use, how did you start? Where did you say we're going to build arenas, we're going to build town halls? What was the genesis of that?
9:40 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
It was a cost-sharing program with the three levels of government. The federal government, by statute, said they'd put up a dollar if the province put up a dollar, and then the municipalities could put up one dollar or more. The aggregate funds would be used to build centennial projects, preferably projects of a “lasting value and nature”--those were the key words.
There's an analysis in my book. First of all, there's a statistical table that shows all of the projects all across the country and what kinds they were. They reflected the ethos of the province in every case. It was really quite remarkable.
The program was going so well. It was very slim on time then. Who was the minister...not Judy LaMarsh, but Lamontagne, who said, “Well, wait a minute, all these municipalities are getting all these projects. I think we should have a major project in each province paid for fully by the federal government—$25 million each.” That's where some of the great big projects occurred, and the two Jubilee projects in Alberta are examples. They were paid for totally by centennial grants, so it was kind of the whim of the minister at the time, and it was accepted.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm glad you said that, because the problem with these cost-shared programs in today's context is that a lot of these smaller communities do not have the capacity to go to the level they want to. I'm not turning this into a rural/urban battle here, but in the 500 celebrations, we built a large replica of the ship that John Cabot was in—sorry, Giovanni Caboto, actually, he was Italian—this huge ship that's still there. Now, it's in trouble. It's needs money. We have a campaign called Save the Matthew!
To celebrate what is distinctive to one part of the country is also a celebration of Canada's sesquicentennial--you should get the Order of Canada if you can pronounce that without pausing, quite frankly.
I think you mentioned they were distinctive to a province, a project like that.
9:40 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
I'm sorry, is there a question there?
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm wondering if there's a question myself.
The question is, some of these projects are very distinctive to one particular area—
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
—like the replica of the ship that discovered Newfoundland. When you were doing this 1967 celebration, were there projects like that?
9:40 a.m.
Professional Engineer, As an Individual
Oh, yes, there were.
One of the problems with capital projects of that nature is that there's no money made for maintenance in perpetuity, and that becomes a burden.
9:40 a.m.
Principal, MASS LBP
Each province was given one major gift. That's how Ontario got the archives and Alberta got a performing arts centre. There was one big flagship build, and then there were all the municipal projects.
