Evidence of meeting #9 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was australia.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
For the record....
One of the concepts you talked about was that the fact that here you have this one city that has this theme, but yet is host to a cross-section of cities and communities across the country. It's akin to what you talked about with the Olympics thing; I think it was Moses' idea.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
That caught my attention. I think it would be a pretty good idea. Let's celebrate the fact that we have one of the greatest places in the world for entertainers, and certainly on a per capita basis, I'd say the greatest in the world, given the amount of talent that's out there in the world, talent being subjective in nature, but you get the idea--very famous, certainly.
Perhaps Montreal could be a place to celebrate the entertainers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow in a place like that. If you had another type of theme, such as governance, it might be in some other city. I like this idea.
In the case of Expo 67, there was a certain sense—and I apologize, because you were there, and Mr. Young was there too—of Canadian identity that came out of it. Can you tell me, as someone who was not there. how that was the case? I look at all the pavilions celebrating great cultures of the world. How did we find our footing as Canadians?
Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs, Just For Laughs Group
To me, and as they say on television, to the best of my recollection, first of all, the passport was fantastic. Because it was a Canadian passport; you had that in your hand. Sometimes there are devices or symbols, and we have such an artifact there: that passport has become a modern-day artifact.
Second, I'd say that the Canadian pavilion was very distinctive in its shape and form. Architecture shapes the space we live in. Architecture now is not only in the spaces we live in, but there's a form of architecture on the web.
You have to think physically and virtually, and at the same time, I think, as we were mentioning, because that's part of what's called in English “outreach programs”. But in this case, you have to think of outreach from day one. Historically, we often think of outreach after we've done our project, but now, visionary organizations start thinking about outreach as they manage the program. I'd think of that as well.
On the site, each province, if I remember, had a pavilion. The logo was also a very expressive logo. All those details count.
The Ontario pavilion was the hottest place in town, if you can believe that in Montreal. They had rock shows and performances every night that were the talk of the place. I was a little bit too young for that, but the bigger brothers, as the first-born.... The older brothers and sisters were there all the time, and the experiences within the Canadian pavilions were fantastic.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Yes, I like the idea of the general themes, of a provincial pavilion and that sort of thing, and of people from across the country being able to experience what it's like to live in the Yukon. Being from the other side of the country, I think that would be very interesting to me.
It seemed to me that at Expo 67 and then onwards to the mid-1970s, being Canadian became more tangible. I think we actually felt it was something we could talk about without being ambiguous about what it was to be a Canadian. Perhaps this can reinvigorate that.
November 1st, 2011 / 10:25 a.m.
Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs, Just For Laughs Group
Yes, and the bilingual nature of the country was well reflected there in the hiring and training policies.
One of the films done by Graeme Ferguson and produced by Robert Kerr—they were two of the three founders of IMAX—was maybe the first bilingual film in history. It had a simultaneous French- and English-language track in a theme pavilion about the great north that featured the aboriginal people of Canada. It's a case of giving lot of attention to detail and having creative people interpret what are sometimes abstract cultural and social objectives.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Madame, I really like the idea of having a legacy based on what has been discovered recently. That's a fantastic idea, for the record; I'm really interested in this. I read about it briefly, and now that I have the material, I think it's a great discovery. It's probably going to be a lasting legacy to what we were about to become, more so than to what we were at the time. A lot of it was realized.
When it comes to the establishment of a model parliament per se, what kind of funding is necessary now to get it up to the level you outline in your diagrams?
Director, Exhibitions and Technologies, Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History
The broad portrait is $70 million. Your question is about the cost, right?
Director, Exhibitions and Technologies, Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History
If we think only about the parliament side, I would estimate that it's between $25 million and $30 million.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
That's for the parliamentary chambers, you mean?
Director, Exhibitions and Technologies, Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History
Yes. It's an underground site. It is just below the surface of the parking lot that was there. It was a very large building, 100 metres long. What we will do with it depends on the budget we have, and to what extent we will do the mise en valeur or make it available to the public depends on the budget we will have.
It can be extensive or.... But what we are dealing with is not to occupy the complete space of the site; we want to reserve probably the north half of the site for future generations, so we will leave it intact, to make sure that it is relevant enough and significant enough to understand and visualize what it was at that time. It is to be able to show an important part of the site.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Thank you, Mr. Simms.
Mr. Hillyer, you will have the last couple of minutes.
Conservative
Jim Hillyer Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you.
Mr. Picard, how can we use Canada 150 to inspire Canadians not just about Canada is, but about what Canada can become? You talked about the Cirque du Soleil, the Formula 1 races in Montreal, IMAX, etc., and about being inspired by the centennial celebrations. I think that if we're too prescriptive in what Canada can become--or had people been too prescriptive in 1967--people really wouldn't be inspired to come up with new ideas.
How can we do this? We have to say “here is what Canada can become” without being too prescriptive. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs, Just For Laughs Group
It's a tough question to answer simply. I was asked about specific themes, and that's really an even deeper question, but to answer this one leads a little bit to what you're saying.
To me, it's about hope and dreaming. Obviously there's the issue of budgets, as you saw in the case of this project. I have read about it a little bit in the papers, but there is a whole scale as to how far you can go and what you can make possible. Obviously the confluence of Expo 67 and the centennial in an economic boom time is not reproducible, certainly on that scale. It's to set broad social, cultural, and possibly even economic goals, and then trust artists, interpreters, museum creators to interpret them.
Some institutions were saying when we met before that they have a bit of a challenge planning on a year-to-year basis. Obviously that's not possible for a museum; they have projects that can go on a 25- to 30-year scale. But there are many projects across Canada that are in phase one, phase two, or phase three. Let's not ignore those either and just try to do the “new” new thing, which is very popular these days. Let's also give some scope to things that haven't been thought of before; give budgets and find a focal point for them. That's the advantage of an international and national exhibition or the Olympics: it's a focal point.
It's a combination: finding what in our business and marketing you call tent poles, to use an image from the circus--you have to spread it out but have a few key tent poles with institutions, locations, and events--but letting artists and interpreters come back to you with their interpretation of what you're suggesting, as you've started to do here, and as I think historically in Canada we have done. Whatever age they are, I think you'll be surprised.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Thank you, Mr. Picard and Ms. Pothier.
We really appreciate both of you being here today. They were very interesting presentations. We're just starting our study on Canada 150 and your input is very valuable. We'll look to it again in the future.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
Before we close the session, I'd like to present a modification to the agenda, please. After having discussed it with Mr. Calandra—as you know we like to work together—we would like to collaborate on changes to my motion. I agree with him; it's fine with me. I would like to postpone the debate on my motion to the Committee's next session, please.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
--or is there still some committee business? Okay?
We'll move in camera now for committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]