Canadian Heritage Committee on Jan. 31st, 2012

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

I thought it was a tremendous celebration. I didn't attend it, but I watched the events on television and the reactions of the people, and the huge crowds that you drew. You must have been very satisfied with how that event went.

[Guy Laflamme]

Thank you. We were, and CBC recognized that it was probably one of the best years in terms of the ratings on national television. We were always extremely focused on ensuring top-quality products in terms of national outreach.

We have to deliver top quality for people who have the chance to attend in the capital, but one of the main focuses is on the outreach component. As Madame Lemay indicated, last year generated record crowds with our international stars, the royal couple, being present. Over 500,000 people gathered in the capital, with 40% of those coming from outside the capital region.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

It begs the question of how you're going to top it in 2017. What type of a budget is it going to take to do that? Do you have any thoughts or ideas on how you're going to build towards 2017? I would see the Canada Day celebrations in 2017 being a pivotal event in our overall celebrations.

[Marie Lemay]

Of course it is a little early to have definite ideas, but we've been thinking and talking about it.

There was a road to Confederation, obviously, so we were hoping to build the momentum. I'll give you an example of some of the ideas that have been talked about, and they are not necessarily new. Perhaps Canada Day 2017 could be a 17-day celebration. For the 125th anniversary, there were 125 days of celebration.

Could we find a way of having 150 days of celebrations? It will definitely be a pivotal moment for us. The change we've made and the realization we've come to through different events we've had and different initiatives is that it is important to use social media to reach out to the rest of the country.

We've been very successful. If we look at just our plan for Canada's capital, we've reached out to 20,000 people. So social media is really one way. The other thing we were thinking about is whether we could do live sites. Is it possible that we could have Canada Day celebrations happening in different places at the same time and connect the parts together?

These are ideas we're starting to think about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

We'll go on to Mr. Nantel.

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

Thank you.

First I would like to thank you for your patience. It is very relevant that you are here to testify on the study of the 150th anniversary. The people from the Royal Canadian Mint are here essentially to help us corroborate these celebrations. As for the representatives of the National Capital Commission, they went through a consultation process I would describe as extreme, and this is much to their credit.

In the course of the commission's work and the major public consultations it carried out, certain facts emerged, for instance the fact that some people would like to see streets named in honour of some of the legendary first nations chiefs. One can see the benefits of consultation here. However, I wonder how much autonomy you have with regard to the commemoration of the War of 1812. It has been folded into the Winterlude celebrations that are about to begin. I have some questions in that regard on your autonomy, on the consultative dimension which is absent in other regards. I wonder among other things if you would have the necessary freedom to erect a monument in honour of Tommy Douglas, who, according to a recent survey, is considered to be one of the most outstanding Canadians.

My question on consultation is for Mr. Hadsipantelis. Have you considered a method that would allow you to consult people on the choice of themes? We have often heard the term “from the ground up” mentioned here, and the fact that people should own the celebrations of the 150th anniversary. Consequently it would be good to have consultations on the overarching themes.

Some themes have been suggested. For instance, I remember that when a consultation was held on the 150th anniversary at the NAC, people said that the health insurance system was important to them and they wanted it to be commemorated, even if government representatives would like to see it disappear.

Do you consult the population on the choice of themes?

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

Consultations are held in connection with the research we conduct. We do in fact survey Canadian public opinion on a regular basis. Our surveys reach more than 1,000 Canadians. We do this periodically. They are now done online. It is a way of surveying the population on the relevance of our themes. One of the highest-ranked events in this research was the 2012 commemoration of the War of 1812.

I think we could go even further. You talked about ways of including a larger part of the public in the consultation process. I mentioned two programs wherein we invited young Canadians to submit designs for commemorative coins. That is a good example.

At the Royal Canadian Mint, these are lessons that we have taken to heart and we consider them important in our preliminary discussions. We think more could be done to increase communication with the public. We have yet to determine exactly how to do that, but it is clear to our minds that this is very relevant. We would like to find a way to involve people in the process of theme selection, and in the choice or preparation of designs. We would even consider finding a way of including them in the selection process. We did so in the context of the Olympic program. We invited Canadians to vote for the 10 greatest sports achievements of the Canadian Olympic Games. We chose the top three results, with the intention of making commemorative coins to mark those events.

In our opinion, involving people in a much more proactive way is a key factor in our success.

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

Thank you.

Do you think you will chose your own themes, or do you hope, to some extent, that the people in charge of organizing the 150th anniversary will suggest specific themes to you?

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

We hold ongoing consultations with the representatives of Heritage Canada, for instance. We prepare a list of the most important commemorative events and we include them in our research. We work in cooperation with them. We expect that our partners will cooperate with us. It is more effective in the final analysis because in that way, we have a better halo effect. For instance, we work very closely with Canada Post. We even have joint products, with similar themes.

Ms. Lemay mentioned the program involving the monarchy, the royal couple. Last year, we created two coins that were extremely well received by the population. We also designed products jointly with Canada Post. We believe in collaborative efforts.

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

You are right. I honestly believe, in fact, that nothing has a more unifying effect in a country than its currency. Everybody is constantly exchanging it and identifies with it. I kept most of the limited edition coins I came across for my children and nephews.

However, in order to produce a coin, you need to set an advance timeframe. If, in the context of the organization of the 150th anniversary celebrations, certain themes were chosen and you wanted to see them used at some point in this event, what would be the deadline to submit themes to you?

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

We are constantly working to improve that deadline. The process can be a long one; it can be as long as 24 months, and it is preferable that suggestions be submitted as early as possible. We are quite a flexible organization and we can make adjustments, given our commercial nature. Sometimes we do virtual somersaults to reduce that deadline, but basically we need a 12-to-24 month window; that is probably a good reference point.

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

Well, you certainly have an excellent spokesperson for your advertising in Quebec. That is very effective, and I congratulate you.

And on those words, I will yield the floor to Tyrone.

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

Sure. I have a quick question.

First off, for the Mint, congratulations on the work you do. I actually had the pleasure of doing the narration for the Vimy television ad you put out, and it was a very good ad.

I'm going to dive into it. I guess this goes out to both of you. As we're heading into Black History Month, I'm wondering what kinds of efforts are being made to focus not so much on picking people out of a lineup but on events and the contributions of the people of African descent who helped found Canada, going way back to the black Loyalists. I'll put that out there for you, first off.

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

I'll start. We haven't done much, really, to be quite honest. I think you've raised an opportunity for us to reflect on how extensively we address different communities. We try to do so. We've done a lot, I think, more recently, with the first nations. We've been proactive there, mainly with the Olympic program. We actually used Corrine Hunt, the artist behind the medals, for a commemorative coin program, more recently, for our nature series. We do it very extensively with the Asian community. We've commemorated the lunar series and more recently the year of the dragon.

We welcome those ideas, and we're actually very open to trying to see how we can actually complement our plans to reach out to more communities.

To be fair, I don't think we've done very much in that area. And that's something we take great pride in addressing, so I appreciate your raising it with us.

[Marie Lemay]

Maybe I could just add, from our end--

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Be very brief, because we're out of time on that question.

[Marie Lemay]

Actually, it was raised specifically in our consultations, so that's a very good point. The notion of larger representation is something we're actually looking into. Diversity is an extremely important issue in everything we do. But that was a specific issue that was raised, which we will be considering.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Benskin.

Mr. Simms.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Thank you, sir, and thank you to our guests.

I'm a very big fan of the Royal Canadian Mint for the collections you've put out there and for all the themes you strike. One of the reasons is that it's actually educational. It's only a coin, but still, it means a lot as far as a reflection of what the country is. It's a regional reflection, but the distribution is national and international. I love to hear about individual provinces and individual persons being represented on the coins. For instance, I think the Saskatchewan Roughriders coin is a fantastic idea. It's a big part of our history. I even enjoyed the fact that I picked up a coin with a Montreal Canadiens emblem, and I'm a Boston Bruins fan.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

That was 25¢ well spent.

I guess a Boston coin is out of the question, right?

I think what it does, too, is allow the opportunity to tell a story in a very specific way. Is it more like a popularity contest, as such? I'm kind of worried that there's a certain reflection of a region. Let's say you have a coin about the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, because it's existed since the late 1700s. How does one go about getting that on a coin? I know that not a lot of people know about it, but I think for me, and for many Newfoundlanders, it would be a great thing to see.

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

That question has a few things I would suggest as answers. We do get a lot of requests from the public. We do get a lot of requests from Canadians with regard to topics, and we take them very seriously. We usually tend to add them to our annual research to ensure that we have an understanding of the level of appreciation of that theme among Canadians at large but also more regionally. It's a balance. As a crown corporation with a mandate for profit, we try to balance the role we have to both educate and to foster a healthy, profitable Mint. When we do so, we do initiatives that are regional in nature.

The example that comes to mind is a coat-of-arms series we're doing in gold coins. They're not high mintages, but they reflect our appreciation for history. Also there are some diehard collectors who appreciate those types of thematics.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Sorry to jump in like this, but I don't have a lot of time.

Is there not a series you're starting with the arrival of the Vikings on the east coast?

[Patrick Hadsipantelis]

Yes, we are. We have a series on great explorers that's just starting now.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay.