Canadian Heritage Committee on April 24th, 2012

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

So during the summer your volunteers need a bit of a break, and the students provide that option to you.

[Judith Baxter]

Yes, but it would be really good if there were some sort of program that allowed for management, even management in the off season. Students can come from university at an earlier base, and we're hard pressed to get those 10- or 12-week students. That would be a big plus for rural community museums, to get that longer term....

Even so, even if we could figure out a way...and I've never figured it out, so I'm not sure that anybody's going to figure it out for me, and I've been doing this for a long time. We need one person consistently in the museum, mainly for continuity, mainly to organize our volunteers. That's a big job just to make all those telephone calls.

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

Right.

This question is going to all three of you. We're talking about federal support and what partnerships we can form so we don't forget our museums, particularly our small museums. You've all mentioned that. We're working in this committee. We're going to submit this to the department. They're going to come up with a plan.

I need to know a timeline. For you to adequately plan and execute events for Canada 150, when do you realistically need to know what types of federal or provincial programs and support will be there so that you can adequately use those to plan? What timeline would meet your needs?

[Judith Baxter]

We can do it at the drop of a hat. Last year for the 400th anniversary of Catons Island, which should have been taken on by various other groups because the river goes by us, we ended up jumping in and taking it on just because we felt it was too big an event to let go by. We did that within six months. With a lot more lead time, we'd certainly be happy.

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

The more the better—

[Judith Baxter]

The more the better.

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

—but if you have time to access and do the applications, you can make use of whatever funds whenever they come out.

Ms. Fullerton, how about your situation?

[Jane Fullerton]

We're a provincial museum, so from a scheduling viewpoint, from the research and development viewpoint, certainly a longer period of time would really be beneficial to put it into the bigger picture that you want it to go into. Depending on the program, whether it's an existing program or a variation of a program, the kinds of matching funds you might need.... One of the programs that I was speaking about here, the idea of doing showcase exchanges with other museums in other parts of Canada, is a program that isn't available federally right now. There are traveling exhibit programs, but they're more complex. They're not ones that a small community museum can get necessarily, and they're ones that we would be careful about applying for, too, because of the commitments that are required in order to do that. I think there could be some program variations that would perhaps enable “one-off” kinds of things that could happen within various levels of the museums.

But for all of that, to my mind, it would be a couple of years out that we'd want to look at that kind of opportunity. This year, as we're looking at 1812, we're scrambling a little bit and it would be nice to have a bit more planning time to ensure that we could do it effectively.

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

So you think around two years would be adequate.

[Jane Fullerton]

Two years, two years and a bit more, depending on....

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

Do you agree, Mr. Wilson?

[Pierre Wilson]

Yes, absolutely. Two or three years would be best. To prepare an exhibit of that kind you'd need a year to a year and a half. Prior to that you'd have to apply to the program, have the answer, whatever the answer is, and then you'd be able to start working. So two years would be better.

Actually, we are working in Montreal on 2014, which is going to be an aboriginal year in Montreal. We are working, we are preparing all the planning right now for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

Madame Boutin-Sweet.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Chair, thank you one last time.

I, too, come from a museum background. I spent at least 19 years in that world, so I know just how difficult it is for you to make ends meet.

Museums are critical not just to mark Canada's 150th anniversary, as you all pointed out, but also to represent our national memory. Mr. Wilson, you spoke at length about museums. It is important to ensure their survival, now and years from now.

If I listen to what Mr. Armstrong said and what people will say, we are here to discuss the country's 150th anniversary, and museum survival in general.

Mr. Wilson, I want to start by congratulating you on the recognition your museum has garnered so far. If you do not work in a museum, what comes to mind are exhibits because that is what you see. However, there are many other considerations involved. Your website says, for example, that you are in the midst of building a museum reserve housing an exhibition centre that meets museum standards and that you received assistance from Quebec's ministry of culture, communications and the status of women, as well as the borough of Saint-Laurent. It does not mention the federal government, however. Did you receive any federal funding for that project?

[Pierre Wilson]

Unfortunately not, but it was not for lack of trying. That is exactly what I wanted to say. The very heart of our business, if you will, is the collection.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Excuse me, Mr. Wilson, we have a point of order here.

Mr. Calandra.

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

We're prepared to discuss the Canada 150; we're not prepared to talk about other issues. So if there are some other issues that they're talking about right now, we'd prefer to have a briefing from the member before we actually...so we can properly engage the witness. If we can stick specifically to the 150th, I'd appreciate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Okay.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

We are talking about the museum's survival, and that includes funding.

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

As you know, we're talking about Canada 150.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

But other members have raised other issues.

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

He asked some questions; you obviously didn't have a problem with that. I'd have a problem with talking about other things. I want to talk about Canada 150. That's why we're here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Okay, let's carry on. Our focus is on the 150th.

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

I'm not here to talk about programs. We can do that when the minister comes.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

What can the federal government do to help you survive so you can host activities celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary?