Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 6th, 2011

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

As for your website, do you try to consult families?

[James Roberts]

There are several projects, including Canada CODE, that allow people to interact directly with the NFB by telling us their story. Every day, we create many opportunities to talk to Canadians about our films. Our team in charge of public relations and social media talks daily to Canadians who want to share stories and experiences that are similar to what they have seen in our films, and so on.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Okay.

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

Our producers are present across the country: in St-John's, Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Vancouver, and so on. We have people all over who provide us with feedback on the whole country. We know that there is a lot of variety in the country from one end to the other. It is not made up of only Quebec and English Canada.

We have many projects in the regions and communities, and that helps us get an idea of what people are looking for.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you.

Does each of your institutions have a direction that is specifically aimed at different types of professionals?

I am under the impression that Library and Archives Canada does not address consumers directly, but rather through libraries and museums, among others.

I am wondering the same thing about the NFB. I am very interested in communications, but I don't visit the NFB's website regularly. However, that's something that could be offered as part of a course on culture and society, for instance.

Do you have a specific approach planned for Canada's 150^th anniversary?

[Daniel J. Caron]

The things we will be implementing will develop over the next few months. We serve a fairly specific client base made up of PhD or master's students, and genealogists. We have very specific and particular niches.

However, since I have held my position, it has been my dream for information to be used everywhere. This institution has so much useful information for Canadians that is still undiscovered. I think that people know about only 2% of our collection. The collection itself is huge.

Over the next few months, we will begin by consulting schools. We will try to find out how young people do their research and what their needs are. We are currently implementing a project. On the one hand, that project will contribute to the ideas on the 150^th anniversary. On the other hand, it will encourage more long-term use of our services and resources for all Canadians across the country. Not to mention that this task has been made easier with the arrival of the digital age.

[James Roberts]

At the NFB, we have a strategy that establishes a relationship between us and schools, especially teachers. That's how we reach over 5 million students a year. They watch an NFB film online or on a DVD. We are able to do that through teachers and their participation.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Merci, Mr. Nantel.

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Mr. Caron, I know it's early on in the process, but have you already given thought to how to get out to Canadians some of the more interesting pieces you have—not only on the web but also through other media, in 2017 and the lead-up to it? The web is great, but it would also be great to bring into a school or a community some of the things that Canadians haven't seen. Have you started to give thought to how we might do that?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Absolutely. The web is one avenue, but we also want to be present. We call it records on wheels. What we want to do is bring the real stuff, the material. We're using the library network, because there's always a tension between what you put out and how you preserve. Internally, there are always tough discussions on that. We use surrogates. We are working through the library network, but we also want to reach out to the school system. We have some 25,000 schools in the country. We are working on this type of programming. We're trying to identify the most important part of the collections. First nations, immigration, transportation, prime ministers—we develop kits like that. We want to bring it to the people. We already do it for prime ministers. We send materials to the schools. It's something we are doing, and we will be doing even more.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Mr. Joli-Coeur, 2017 is a year of celebrating, but the run-up to 2017 is also a time to reflect on how the country has grown up and why we're celebrating. In the archival records, are there things that show how Canada has grown up? For instance, we apologized to our first nations and to Japanese Canadians, but is there film to show Canadians why we apologized and how Canada has tried to put some of our past actions behind us to become a great country?

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

Absolutely. We have an invaluable source of content for that.

I'll give you the project that we recently launched in early November, which is our Inuit project. We have a collection of 110 films, on Inuit, by Inuit, and on Inuit subjects, at the NFB. These are films that were produced from the forties up to now.

We decided to launch a project to organize those films and to make them accessible as much as possible. We launched a box set of 24 films in November. We have translated, in Inuktitut, 24 films. We have created an online channel in our screening room, with 40 films.

We're translating films. One of our collection of Inuit films is for the Nunavut government for integration in their curriculum.

That's a very good example of how we can organize all of that content to make it available to Canadians so they understand the richness of, in this case, the Inuit culture and the issues they are facing.

These are not only for the Inuit, but also for Canadians of the south. We have a program to distribute those films as widely as possible in the school system in the south—what the Inuit call the south, which is here—so that there is a better understanding by the Inuit and Canadians in the south of each other's stories and culture.

It's absolutely something that we consider in working with our collection: how we can share those stories and how we can make them possible.

With the film on the Chinese....

[James Roberts]

There is a new production on the Chinese in the Vancouver area and their contribution to building the country and their place in Canadian society now.

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

A couple of years ago we also did a film on what happened on the construction of the railroad and the Chinese community. That's something we bring back regularly, given the reach we have in the school system, so that young Canadians can also have access to those stories.

We have a variety of subjects like that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Calandra.

Mr. Benskin.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Hello, I'm back.

Mr. Caron, I want to talk about acquisitions a bit. You had mentioned earlier that because of the budget cut—I believe it was from $1 million down to $300,000—it's harder for you now to acquire certain types of acquisitions. They tend to go to private collectors.

If that is the case, what can be done, or what is being done, to at least record the existence of those pieces so there are less holes in our history?

[Daniel J. Caron]

There will always be holes in the collection.

But to correct, I don't think it's harder. It has always been difficult, and it will always be difficult, because when these things go to Sotheby's, there are a lot of very rich people who are bidding.

In fact what we have resolved, at least here, is that an archive in Canada will not bid against another one. We used to. With the stakeholders' forum we've put in place, we're working together. That's at least a good thing.

In terms of acquiring the material, we realize that what's important to us now—and we've also discussed it a lot with BAnQ, in Quebec, because they've faced the same issues lately—is that if we cannot buy everything, we want to make sure we know where it is, that it's well preserved, and that it is accessible.

We also have to be careful in terms of material. The national library and archives is focusing on Canadiana, material that is being produced by Canada. Sometimes people say, “Oh, this is an interesting piece from Louisiana.” It's not Canadiana. We have our framework to work within.

I wouldn't say it's more difficult. I would say we are applying a framework in making our acquisitions to build the most comprehensive collections for the material related to Canada.

There is also a point where we have criteria, which is sufficiency. We don't need to have everything. My archivist told me lately on a specific topic that we have enough. So we're going to work with another archive in the country, if they are interested.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

That leads me to this question. What are the priorities you set, if you're trimming down what you consider important and what you feel you can sort of leave to other archives? What are the parameters?

[Daniel J. Caron]

I would have to go into more detail about the criteria. I don't have all the details with me, but we have a model that applies. So it has to be Canadian; it has to be of national significance. That, for us, is very important. So we are focusing on what is of national significance.

The priorities are where it needs to be part of the collection. There are specialists looking at it and saying, well, there is a void, there is a hole here, so we need to fill it.

The difference with the past is that we used to be reactive, and when your question, Madame, was around.... We were in fact waiting for people to come to us and say, well, I've got this stuff, so you should buy it. Now what we're saying is that we need to reverse this and say, okay, we're going to look at the collection and make sure it's representative as much as possible of all the documentary productions in Canada over time. So what you're going to see soon coming out from our institution is what we call a statement of documentary intent. We will announce that we are interested in this type of material. We're more proactive in trying to build the collection.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Okay, thank you.

I have one quick question. The NFB app is available internationally, I'm assuming. Is there any way of tracking international hits? If you have sort of a rough sense of those numbers, what kinds of numbers are they?

[James Roberts]

The split right now is about half Canadian, half international, in terms of our overall screenings across all of our different platforms. The countries that stand out are France, the U.K., Denmark, and Germany, and the other countries are in the minority after those. Does that answer your question?

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Yes, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Benskin.

Mr. Young.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you.

I have a question for Mr. Caron, please.

At this committee we've heard a lot about Canadian history, and we had representatives from the Ontario Black History Society, and there are a lot of stories that are untold, but they are fascinating and interesting stories. We talked about William Peyton Hubbard, who was an inventor and was the acting Mayor of Toronto in the 1840s. These are just great stories.

I have an interest in trying to promote Canadian history and tell these stories again. Are there any ideas you have to help tell these stories that remain largely untold?