Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

I guess it's a combination.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

Rodger, I was trying to think of something red. All I can think about is lobsters. When they are cooked, they are red.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Just keep going.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

It might have been covered, and forgive me if it has, but the process of getting to the final 28 was done by a panel of experts. Is that correct? Is that how they did the process?

[Terri McCulloch]

Yes, actually, there were three campaign phases prior to that. We started with 441 global sites that were nominated, and then by public voting it went to 220. These 220 sites included one from each country. There were also some international sites. At that time, after the 220, the Bay of Fundy was still in as Canada's top site. Niagara Falls was actually in as an international site because the United States and Canada had nominated that site together.

Then, when the top 77 sites went down to the 28, you are correct that it was determined by a panel of international experts. I can name a couple of people on that committee: Federico Mayor, the former chair of UNESCO; and Alexandra Cousteau. If you recognize the name Cousteau, yes, she is Jacques Cousteau's daughter. She is part of an international initiative over a five-year period to raise awareness of world water issues. Also on the committee was a gentleman from the United States who is known as the silent walker—I can't even remember his real name—because he has walked across the United States four times over a period of 15 years to raise global awareness of environmental issues. He wasn't silent by the time he was on the committee.

So there were a number of international experts, some renowned, who actually evaluated the sites based on their international merits and their world calibre accolades.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

Just to go back to the public voting in that first round, which you had mentioned, was that voting process worldwide?

[Terri McCulloch]

Absolutely, yes, the campaign is a global campaign.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

So getting there is fantastic.

Is a private foundation putting up the money for all of this? How did they select the voting process versus a selection process? Can you can give us any insight as to how that was determined?

[Terri McCulloch]

It's our understanding that it's a non-profit association very similar in some ways to the Olympics. There is a component, as Helen Jean mentioned, or possibility of corporate sponsorships. In terms of any sorts of funds going over to the corporation, we paid a $50 registration fee four years ago, and those are the only funds we've exchanged with the foundation.

I suppose their operational funds come from corporate sponsors. It hasn't been a huge sort of exercise, or a big money draw or anything like that. I know that was a concern for some people initially: how does this work; who are these people, and that type of thing? But they did run the previously successful campaign for the Built Wonders and worked with many of the international destination marketing organizations, the large cities of the world that had some of those finalists and had a very good international reputation. We did do some homework, as well.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

I have just one last quick question. You have a media connection with CTV, obviously. Was that something that just happened because there was synergy between the two groups, or did you approach all media and CTV was the only organization to jump in? How did that happen?

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

This was part of the corporate strategy we developed to approach partners at all levels, and we were looking for a media partner as well. We did approach all of the major media partners in Canada. CTV was, I think, the one that felt passionate about it and were able to help us in a big way.

[Helen Jean Newman]

It took us several months and four meetings with major people at the table to get CTV to finally say they were in.

We talked about the coverage earlier. We have our fingers crossed that there's going to be something coming up with Peter Mansbridge on the news on the new seven wonders.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

So it wasn't exclusive, in the sense that if one of the other media outlets in the country wanted to jump in at this point and help you with that final push it would not be available to them. That's fantastic.

Thank you again and I really appreciate your being here because we'll use all of our resources to help promote this and get the votes out that you're going to need.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. McColeman.

Thank you to our witnesses, Helen Jean, Terri, Stacey. Thank you for taking the time to be here to tell us about this Canadian entry, which is something, I think you've heard around the table, that we are all keen to support. We all have our colleagues and network of friends and email lists and websites. You've issued a challenge to us as members of Parliament to do what we can, and we look forward to doing that.

We've been pleased as a government, as well, to partner with you through CTC and ACOA and the Atlantic Canada Tourism partnership. I'm a little biased because my riding is on the Bay of Fundy. I can appreciate some of that scenery and some of the benefits that will come to Canadian tourism if we're selected.

With that, you are dismissed. We have appreciated your appearance here. If there's anything you can think of in the next 23 days that you'd like to get into our hands so that we can hand it off to our colleagues, please feel free to do so, because I think everyone here is keen to help. Thank you.

Before we adjourn, Mr. Nantel, you had something to say?

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

In fact this room would be ideal for Mr. James Moore's appearance and that meeting could be televised. What do we need to do to ensure that next Thursday's meeting is televised from this room?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

That's was late breaking. I know this committee required a lot of negotiation with some of your colleagues as well with the justice committee.

Mr. Calandra, do you want to speak to that at all?

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

Mr. Chairman, only in the sense that I know that Minister Moore is always excited to talk about events leading up to Canada's 150th birthday celebrations. If we could do that in one of the televised TV rooms, absolutely. I know there's a lot of pressure on those rooms with some of the other hearings, but I know from our side, we're fine with it. As we did with this meeting, we would in essence need the permission of the two opposition parties to make that happen. I know that from our point of view we would be more than happy to have the minister appear on TV.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

I should speak to that, because I know the clerk and I spoke about this on Monday. We wanted this meeting to be televised, and we worked with opposition members to make sure that would happen. The clerk tells me that with just two days' notice, swapping with someone else creates logistical challenges. There are two committee rooms that have television capabilities, right?

There is this one and one other.

Apparently we can televise two committees in the same slot.

So, number one, if it's the will of the committee, which it seems to be, then we can begin that process. But there are no guarantees; it would depend on what your colleagues and our colleagues are doing in the other committees that have those slots.

Is it the will of the committee that the clerk look into having Thursday's committee meeting televised?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Okay.

That's something to do for the next couple of days.

The meeting is adjourned.