Rosemary and I were part of a consultative committee formed by Parks Canada to erect an underground railroad exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, and I think the same template could be applied in terms of forming a creative consultative committee in the formation of this museum that would involve the participation of people out east, the Black Cultural Centre in Nova Scotia, the Chatham-Kent region of Buxton, Amherst, and out west.
I think it's important to have the museum because the country needs it. I understand and sympathize completely with the Italian community because we have the same problems in the black community as well.
One certainty is that all the black Canadian communities and organizations around the country realize there is a need for a national museum. The formulation of what is to be there, what it is going to contain, and what is the structure can all be decided and hashed out, but we're all in agreement that one needs to be created.
I don't think it's realistic to understand that the Canadian government is going to put down $100 million to build a building from scratch. There are all kinds of buildings—abandoned churches, abandoned cinema houses, companies vacating buildings—that could be either donated by companies or by religious groups that could be used. All across the country, there are buildings popping up vacant.