Canadian Heritage Committee on April 21st, 2016

[Margaret Beckel]

We welcome 30,000 students per year. These come from the national capital region, but they also come from across Canada for those who can afford a field trip to the city, but that is a small number.

We also work with a network of natural history museums and do all we can to promote their school visit programs, because the provincial and territorial museums have their own school visit programs, and in many cases the subject matter is very similar.

It's not an experience with a national institution, but it is a connection with natural history and an understanding of our natural world.

That's really how we extend the reach rather than trying to do it ourselves.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Somehow we need to get into the classroom and we need to get kids to.... I think iChat is a great one, but getting more involved in that piece is essential.

[Margaret Beckel]

If I may add to that, in collaboration with the Canadian Geographicmagazine, we created a giant floor map, and that is something that travels to schools across Canada.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I want to talk about 150. Some of us talked about it, and this is not a criticism of any presentations earlier, but I'm just getting the sense that 150 is not as focused to the museum as I expected. We're going to celebrate 150 in every way, shape, or form across this great country, but for some reason—and this is not a criticism—maybe that reflection or that structure needs to be put in place. I'm not getting the sense that when we walk into our museums in Canada in 2017 we'll think that the world has changed because there's our great country after 150 years and it's not just about our contribution but about where we came from, where we're at, and where we're going.

I just feel that I'm not getting that. Help me understand.

[Margaret Beckel]

Part of it is that we have all been on the path to 150 for five years, so maybe it's not coming out, because we've been at this for five years now. We're all very focused, as a group of national museums at least, and I think the provinces and territories are similar in terms of what our rollout will be for all 12 months in 2017. Yesterday we had our discussion on the rollout, and every single month we're going to be doing something. For us, it's focused on the Arctic to celebrate our 150 years of exploring and mapping the Arctic.

It will be very evident and very noisy, and hopefully we'll be instilling pride and a sense of belonging.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

What are your priorities for the next five years? We talked about climate change, but Canada is changing because of its climate. Environmentally our government is bringing in many initiatives and it's going to change how we do business and it's also going to change many jobs, green jobs that we've never had.

How is that going to be highlighted?

[Margaret Beckel]

Our strategic focus right now is to continue to transform Canadians' understanding of the Arctic and its importance to Canada as a country. I think we'll touch on not only the natural environment but also its effect on people.

We'll also be engaging in and continuing the conversation around species discovery and change and around how climate change particularly is affecting species diversity and species change. We'll do that with partners, and there are different lenses on doing that.

Over the next five years we're going to be reaching out and looking at different lenses on nature.

For example, an economic lens on nature and the notion of natural capital is something that we're now engaged in conversations on with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Ecofiscal Commission, and some of the major banks that are very seized with the reality that as the environment changes, the way they evaluate their own business is going to have to change.

We want to be part of that story, because we are the benchmark; we're the yardstick of nature over time. We have the evidence of how the world is changing.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

If I travel across this great country in the next five years, what type of species might I see that I didn't know about that's going to change our insects? Should I be aware of something?

[Margaret Beckel]

You're going to see a different kind of briefcase at a conversation about biodiversity. I think that's the species change you're really going to see.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much. That was very well done.

Ms. Beckel, I want to say how interesting it is to see you evolving so rapidly with our rapidly evolving environment. Thank you very much for your presentation.

We now go to Mr. Albert Lo, chairperson of the the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

Welcome, Mr. Lo. Please begin.

[Albert Lo, Chairperson, Canadian Race Relations Foundation]

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Albert Lo. I am the chairperson of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. I am accompanied by Rubin Friedman.

Mr. Friedman is a member of the foundation's board of directors and chair of our governance committee.

Incidentally, he once held senior positions in multiculturalism and acted as the director of the Japanese-Canadian Redress Secretariat with the Government of Canada.

Madam Chair, it is an honour for me to serve in this capacity as chair. It is my 30th year in the area of human rights, employment equity, and multiculturalism. I was first exposed to this arena when I was with the federal public service through Canada Mortgage and Housing, where for I worked for almost 20 years.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation was created as a non-agent crown corporation as part of the Japanese-Canadian Redress Agreement of 1988, operating on income generated from a $24-million endowment, half of which was contributed by the Japanese Canadian community. The foundation has a very large mandate to help eliminate racism and racial discrimination across Canada. We have also received limited amounts of funding from governments for specific projects. We are mindful of the past injustices and negative instances, while building on our precious heritage of accommodating differences. Our vision is to be the leading voice and agent of change in pursuit of our mandate and the promotion of inclusion, belonging, and a mutuality of citizenship rights and responsibilities.

We focus on advancing understanding and development of approaches to improving race relations and eliminating racial discrimination; strengthening Canadian identity as it refers to the democratic principles of inherent human dignity, equality, fairness, and justice; expanding our clearinghouse and initiatives to inform national policies and public conversations; and facilitating and stimulating the discussions and further research on race relations.

We target our work to creating and nurturing an inclusive society based on equality, mutual respect, and human dignity across religious, ethnic, linguistic, and racial lines.

A key antidote to racism and racial discrimination is the holistic approach to promoting these shared values based on our Constitution and democracy, along with an awareness of the negative consequences of prejudice and discrimination for the economic and social well-being of all Canadians.

Madam Chair, these elements inform and shape our overall strategy. The foundation's initiatives are all designed accordingly.

Now I would like to mention a number of initiatives that the foundation has undertaken.

The Capturing the Pulse of the Nation initiative is an annual survey, in co-operation with the Association for Canadian Studies. For instance, we commissioned a research on attitudes toward aboriginal peoples in Canada, which sounded a warning in 2013.

The Directions digital publication is an electronic journal.

Our clearinghouse function is a valuable and growing collection of well over 4,000 searchable digital records of resources relating to race relations.

We also have the eRACE virtual book club.

The digital initiative 150 Stories, which is part of the Our Canada project, publishes one personal story per week for 150 weeks, in celebration of Canada's upcoming sesquicentennial, paying tribute to Canada's diversity, democratic principles, and multiculturalism through the experiences of individuals, organizations, and historic events.

We also conducted The Urban Agenda round tables in partnership with many other organizations.

We have held nine Living Together symposia so far across Canada on research and best practices in shared values. The symposia were built upon community consultations between November 2014 and June 2015: first nations, Métis, and Inuit consultation in Sudbury; francophone consultation in Montreal; and faith leaders consultation in Ottawa.

We are conducting 24 workshops in 19 cities across Canada in the last fiscal year, 2015-16, and 23 have been completed so far.

We also host a biennial national conference and awards of excellence.

The Canada Lecture is an annual lecture that invites accomplished Canadians to raise awareness and understanding of critical issues. This year we have done it by linking up four universities across Canada.

We continue to involve ourselves in the Metropolis conference.

In terms of engaging youth, Voices into Action is one particular initiative. We also launched a youth video challenge. Youth Café Canada is being planned for youth and community leaders to explore ideas to foster positive race relations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm afraid we are well over five minutes, but again, I will invite the questioners to help you to be able to say some of your own introductory remarks in your answers.

Thank you very much.

We now begin five-minute questions. Mr. Samson, from the Liberals.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Lo.

Some quick questions. I guess I'm not going to hit too hard on the 150 because you seemed to circle around it quite well, talking about 150 stories, 150 weeks. Well, I was in the 150 with you. I was moving with that one, so that was interesting. I appreciate that.

You talked about the consultation across Canada and that you had one left to do. I forget the numbers you quoted. What about African Nova Scotians? African Nova Scotians' contribution to Nova Scotia has been tremendous, and to Canada. You didn't mention these people, and I just want to know whether you have done any work with them.

[Albert Lo]

We did a recent session, and another one is actually coming up in May, in Halifax. We were asked to postpone it at the request of one of our partners locally, the RCMP, but we also had a number of events in the past in Halifax, including an award of excellence symposium a few years ago. Also, the deputy mayor of Truro came to our event in Ottawa.

[Rubin Friedman, Member of the Board of Directors, Canadian Race Relations Foundation]

I would like to add something.

In Halifax, when we held the award of excellence dinner, there was a special session dealing with aboriginal issues in the Maritimes and with black Nova Scotian issues in the Maritimes.

The challenge for us is to continue to maintain contacts with all these groups across the country.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I appreciate that, Mr. Friedman, because in my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, which is on the outskirts of the two big cities, Halifax and Dartmouth, we need more visitors and we want more visitors. We have the largest black cultural centre in Canada. Have you been?

[Albert Lo]

No, not yet.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

It's time to go. Let's all go together. I think we should.

[Albert Lo]

I hope somehow our budget would be increased to allow me to travel again to Halifax.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

That's right, but it would be a strong suggestion, because they have the largest black cultural centre, to do an event there, right in the cultural centre itself, which is only about 15 kilometres from downtown Halifax, but even closer from the airport. It would be a great opportunity because the African Nova Scotian community in North Preston—again in my riding—is the largest indigenous community in Canada. We need to highlight them, and we need to highlight them as often as we can, and we need to do it for the 150 that much more. I'm just saying words of encouragement on that piece.

Can you talk to us about the centre's positive impact? In the last two or three years, what has been the positive impact that you feel has made a difference, so we can touch and we can see it? What would they be in the last three years, if you were going to point to two things that you feel have had a major impact?

[Albert Lo]

I think one of the things I can point to right away is the mayor's summit for racial inclusion in Winnipeg that was hosted by the mayor of Winnipeg. We were invited as a partner to deal with the fallout when Winnipeg was described by the media as the racist capital of Canada. During the session there were all kinds of comments from some of the media folks who said that people were just repeating all the complaints, and so what are you going to do? Our panel was there, and we managed to present some ideas as to how to address the issues, and at the end of it, we received a lot of good reports. In fact, the mayor invited us to go back there again, and that is an indication.

Another one is we hosted a workshop up in Whitehorse, and there were some 30-odd indigenous leaders who attended, and at the end of it we were informed that they were so pleased. They said it had been a long time since they had that kind of meeting where they were able to try to formulate some solutions to the challenges that they face. They thanked us for doing what we did.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Mr. Samson.

Now we go to Mr. Waugh for the Conservatives.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Lo and Mr. Friedman, for coming today.

I see here you operate on income generated by investing the endowment funds and donations. Can you talk a little bit about that? The interest rates are rather low, so when you talk about endowment funds there, I'm sure you struggle from year to year. Give me an update, if you can.

[Albert Lo]

I always describe the funding as a congenital funding challenge. At the time the endowment was created, people were thinking we would have a 10% interest rate in perpetuity, but we know what the story is. In 2008, because of a market hiccup, the endowment went down to something like $18 million. We managed to invest the money wisely with the help of some investment advisers, so it's now back up to between $27 million and $28 million. Our annual income generated from the endowment is around $650,000. There's a huge gap between that and our budget of now around $1.65 million. The bulk of that is actually based on project funding or grants that we managed to obtain from Multiculturalism two years ago. This was the sequel to the previous three-year project that was also funded, but not to the same extent.

Building on that success, we are actually using this opportunity to leverage the resources by partnering with organizations right across the country. The hope is that we will be able to generate some additional interest as well as donations. That is an area that we are trying to focus on as well.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

For many organizations, when they have a foundation, it's kind of like a pyramid. In a hospital foundation or whatever, you have a lot of people working in the office trying to raise money. What's your situation? How do you reach out to your stakeholders, and how many do you have in the office?