Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question.
I'd like to begin my answer by saying that I fully understand the concerns of Canadians when changes are made to their memory institutions. I've been around a long time, having worked in cultural and social policy for the Government of Canada since 1986. I've been in this museum corporation for 12 years. I was in the corporation when another government created a museum, when a government built the Canadian War Museum, and I saw that project from the ground up. Many of the same concerns and discussions were certainly central to that whole period as well.
I think those concerns are understandable. What works, and as the Minister of Canadian Heritage explained, simply by its statutory nature the museum is a crown corporation existing at arm's length from the Government of Canada. Ministers and governments make their views known in very broad ways, as the former government did about the need for a military history museum, as this government has about its desire to introduce a bill to Parliament, and here you are at second reading.
The arm's length and the protection flows from the governance structure of the corporation, and that is the role of the board of trustees in setting the strategic direction and, as I think many of the members of this committee know, that is a cornerstone of crown corporation governance. It appears in our corporate plan each year. It is my task as the CEO of the corporation to respond to that strategic direction and demonstrate to the board, operating on behalf of the minister of the government, that we are indeed implementing it.
My experience in the corporation is that the members of this committee as well as Canadians can be encouraged and assured that the museum will operate independently from the Government of Canada, and that the content of this new museum will be created by the content experts who work for us: the museologists, curators, researchers, and historians.