To add to what he was saying, there is no doubt about it, that in no uncertain terms, the direction we got from the minister in the House was that this would be something we should look into. He even cited Mr. Caron, specifically, as a person of interest to discuss this with.
Not only that, but the fundamental shift in Library and Archives has taken everyone off guard, to the point where there is a fundamentally different way of thinking that's going to be applied. It seems the government is trying to move into some kind of digital world without thinking about the expertise of the individual librarian or archivist.
As a case in point, the local program, the NADP, was such a wonderful program for people in local communities to learn how to archive their material. The answer we got was, “We cut it because all you need to do is digitize it”. That negates the fact that to archive something is an art in and of itself and it takes talent and it takes education for people to do this. It's not just taking something and downloading it to a disk. How do you do that? How do you tell the story? How do you allow the local communities to display their history, both in static displays in a museum as well as online?
I don't understand how there’s the disconnect between what a librarian or an archivist does and the way the government makes decisions, including Mr. Caron. Because, quite frankly, I'm astounded at how Mr. Caron can just let this go as far as it has.
As per the direction of the minister, I think it's quite obvious. I think we come in and have a hearing with relevant guests, not just Mr. Caron but also relevant witnesses to speak to this and to show us and illustrate what it is to be a librarian or an archivist. Because I think that for a lot of people on this committee—myself included, and I'm not trying to be nasty about it—there are a lot of things they do that we just don't quite understand. I think the government could benefit from this as well, as a matter of fact. Maybe the minister would, otherwise he probably wouldn't have suggested we bring the individual in along with other relevant guests.
Thank you.