Canadian Heritage Committee on April 21st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We'll proceed to the Museum of Nature for five minutes, Margaret Beckel, the president and chief executive officer.

[Margaret Beckel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Museum of Nature]

Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable members.

I have the honour and privilege of serving as the president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

I am very pleased to be here with you this morning to update you on the activities of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

We're one of Canada's six national museums that together cover art, history, science, innovation, immigration, human rights, and nature. As national museums, we believe that we reflect what Canadians value and that we tell our country's story. Over 150 years ago, the Geological Survey of Canada sent researchers out to map and record Canada's natural wealth. This work became the foundation of the Canadian Museum of Nature. We opened Canada's first national purpose-built museum in 1912 at the Victoria Memorial Museum Building on McLeod Street. We are still there today, with galleries inspired by, and specimens from, the survey's early efforts. Who knew that eventually we would convert that building into a nightclub?

Our reach extends nationally. We maintain nine active full-size travelling exhibitions, nine suitcase exhibits, which have smaller interactive items in displays, and four digital exhibits. These temporary exhibits reach one million visitors each year. In addition to engaging Canadians, our museum has a strong scientific mission. Our team of 24 scientists, paleontologists, botanists, mineralogists, and zoologists go into the field every year to collect and catalogue our environment. Their discoveries form the national natural history collection, a scientific collection of more than 10.5 million specimens. The most important pieces are made accessible to Canadians through our public engagement programs and travelling exhibits.

Through our memberships in key international bodies, for example, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Canadian data collected by our museum can be used by researchers around the world to understand and benchmark the state of biodiversity, to look at our Arctic, and to enable an understanding of how climate change is affecting our world. In fact, in 2015-16 our digitized data was downloaded 100 million times from the global biodiversity database. From a scientific point of view, this work is more critical than ever, given the global imperative to address climate change and biodiversity loss.

To support our work in 2012, we launched a new approach to operations focused on business sustainability. At that time, almost 90% of our revenue came from the federal government. We needed to increase revenues from museum admissions, pursue innovative sponsorships and partnerships, sustain our scientific knowledge and leadership, and enable more cost-effective operations.

In 2014-15, our combined revenues stood at $42.5 million. Earned revenue accounted for 21% and 79% came from government appropriations. Contributions, sponsorships, and annual giving stood at $2.8 million, a significant increase over the previous years, and we welcomed over 400,000 visitors. This past year we had over 480,000 visitors on site, and we reached an additional million visitors through our travelling exhibits across Canada and around the world.

I want to give you a sneak peek of this past year. Over $6.1 million in value was committed to the life and future of the museum through cash collections and in-kind contributions. I must point out that about $3 million of that was media sponsorship from The Globe and Mail.

Some 230 volunteers give their time and talent to help support the mission and mandate of the institution. Our researchers spent 170 days in the field across Canada and around the globe, advancing our role as a creator of knowledge about the natural world and furthering our research. Our scientists place a high value on their days in the field. They share what they find through over 90 publications, ensuring that our knowledge of plants, animals, fossils, and minerals inspires understanding and respect for nature.

On the programming side, we brought many innovative exhibits and programs—from Creatures of Light, about the nature of bioluminescence, to Animal Inside Out. More recently, it was all about bugs, live and otherwise—the ones we wanted in the building, not the ones we didn't want.

I have to tell you about Nature Nocturne. Now in its third year, it continues to sell out almost every time. I say “almost” because for the last one we had 20 tickets available at the last minute. This is a novel concept to engage young professionals—we call them “adult visitors”. Nature Nocturne opens at the museum at night and it marries our science and exhibits in a very informal atmosphere—two dance floors, nine bars. The first two hours they're in the galleries, the last two hours they're engaged with one another.

Where has all of this innovation taken us? Today, we're a museum of international first rank, a trusted source of understanding, providing evidence-based insights, and inspiring experiences and real engagement with nature's past, present, and future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

We begin with Mr. O'Regan from the Liberals.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Ms. Beckel, thank you very much for your presentation.

I want to take a moment, too, to acknowledge, in Ms. Brabant's testimony, the reference to Corner Gas, and I'd like to make mention of the fact that I appeared on Corner Gas for exactly one minute.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

After 10 years of appearing for three hours every morning on national news, I'm known on the street as “that guy on Corner Gas”, which I think is a testament to the power of excellent Canadian drama and as a Corner Gas friend, I say it is a drama; it is not a comedy. It has to be taken very seriously—very seriously.

Also, in reference to my colleague next to me who's from New Brunswick, I have to make mention of Mr. O'Neill's talking about The Rooms. As a former board member of The Rooms for 10 years and co-chair of the campaign that he referenced concerning Beaumont-Hamel, I can just say that the people at The Rooms are delighted with the work we're doing together on Beaumont-Hamel. I thank you for it.

Ms. Beckel, I want to come back to you. I want to ask you about your mission, which I know is to inspire respect and understanding for the natural world. In that mission, you reference the fact that your purpose has not changed, but the world around us has. Can you tell us how the world has changed and how that's reflected in your mandate?

[Margaret Beckel]

Certainly.

When we refer to the world around us having changed, we are also saying that the way we connect with our visitors has changed dramatically. That's how we as an institution have had to change the way we operate, the way we create, design, and deliver visitor experiences that enable people to engage with the natural world. Whether through school visit programming or otherwise, we recognize that we need to find ways to reach more school visitors, because not everybody can afford to come to the nation's capital to have an experience. We've developed an “eye chat” program whereby we enable kids from other places to connect with our scientists and with our educators.

We're also recognizing that from a research point of view, we need not and cannot do it on our own. We need to collaborate with other natural history museums, with universities, and with natural history museums from around the world, because as most of you know, research is highly collaborative, and it usually engages scientists from all over the world. That is something we're embracing more and more, and we need to fund it.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I want to ask you about your concentration on the Arctic. Given that we know that the Arctic is changing more rapidly, perhaps, than we would like because of climate change, how do you incorporate that?

I ask this knowing full well, having served time in governance of a museum, that neither the shareholder—in this case the government—nor the board of governors should ever become involved in the actual presentation, but I am inquiring how you incorporate that in the context of a changing world.

[Margaret Beckel]

That's a great question, and thank you, because I didn't get to this in my remarks.

The Canadian Museum of Nature was basically founded for and was an early participant in the original Canadian Arctic Expedition, so we've been exploring the Arctic for over 100 years. We've been incorporating the collection and the knowledge derived from that collection into our public programming since that time.

More currently, over the last five years we've been engaged in a specific five-year program to tell the Arctic story to our visitors through public programming, through travelling exhibits, and through higher engagement in our research programs with other Arctic museums, the other national museums of the Arctic Council.

We're also working with partners, especially people from the north. We have established an Arctic gallery advisory panel to guide us in creating our Canada 150 celebratory gift to Canada, which will be an Arctic gallery dedicated to telling the story of the Arctic past, present, and future through diverse lenses: a lens on ecosystems, a lens on the geography of the Arctic, a lens on sustainability, but also a lens on climate change, helping visitors understand how the climate has changed and how that has affected the ecosystems that the natural world is so dependent on, but also that the human world is so dependent on in the north.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Could you tell me a little more about that challenge, about how you exhibit not only the change that occurs in the ecosystem but the way it is reflected in the lives of the people who live there?

[Margaret Beckel]

It's in two ways. It's in the gallery, which is still in preliminary design—we're still sorting out exactly the most compelling and clear way of doing that. We're talking about changes in the amount of biodiversity in the north.

Regarding the ecosystems, we will talk about the diversity of life in the north and how it has changed, and how it has also adapted to the changes to the climate. Think of the story of the polar bear; there are some areas where the polar bears are really struggling, and others where they're thriving. That's part of the story we will tell.

From a sustainability point of view, we're really learning from our partners from the north about how people are adapting to the changes in the environment so that they can sustain their livelihoods, whether that's from living off the land, from developing new art forms, taking advantage of what is available in the north, but also through—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Beckel, I'm sorry, but we're over time on this one. I am sorry because I know that there are a lot of interesting questions and interesting answers.

The next person will be Mr. Van Loan, from the Conservatives.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I've been impressed in watching how you have improved your marketing to the public and reaching the public and so on. I think you've done a tremendous job there.

One of the issues is that question of sustainability, which I've asked others about, and I understand that more and more museums use that measure of subsidy per visitor. I imagine that number has gone in a good direction for you. Can you tell me where that is for your museum right now?

[Margaret Beckel]

Well, I've had the advantage of time to do my math at the back here.

When I look at the amount that the federal government is investing per visitor, I include on-site visitors and our visitors across Canada, so if I look at the on-site visitors—

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Let's do just the on-site visitors.

[Margaret Beckel]

Okay. It's $52 per visitor. It goes down to $20 per visitor if you include the off-site visitors through travelling exhibits.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

One of the challenges, I think, for museums like yours, like it is for universities, frankly, is this business of balancing. In the universities, it's how much you focus on teaching versus research. In your case, it's how much you focus on exhibiting to the public and educating the public versus research.

I think the research tradition made a lot of sense in the days when folks had to go out and establish collections. I'm a little bit less certain of that now. Would you comment on your efforts to maintain that and ensure that balance is right?

[Margaret Beckel]

One thing about financial statements is that they tell a very clear story. I've actually looked at the investment we make in inspiration and engagement, which is the visitor experience, our marketing, and our fundraising, relative to research and discovery, because although much of the biodiversity and geodiversity of Canada is represented in our collection, there's still much to be mapped. Much of Canada's north has not yet been mapped, so there's much still to do. The story is not complete. The other pillar is really the buildings and grounds that we're responsible for.

We invest in those three equally. Normally we wouldn't invest so much in building and grounds, yet we have a magnificent facility and we do have a rather significant property tax bill that we are responsible for, so that does elevate the cost there. The balance between the inspiration and engagement and the research and discovery is quite equal, and I think it should be.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

What proportion of your collection is actually on display? How do you manage the rest?

[Margaret Beckel]

One thing about a scientific collection that includes insects is that the percentage of your collection that's on display is actually very small. We have just over 10 million specimens in our collection. We actually manage them in lots, so a jar of worms would be one, not 2,000, so we have 2.7 lots. Of that, we probably have only 5,000 specimens on display. If we add those that are on the road, that probably goes up, but again, given that scientific specimens in many cases are very small and we have a huge collection, it is quite small.

However, we make a point to ensure that our galleries are specimen-rich so that people see the diversity in minerals, plants, animals, and fossils, because that's really what provides the awe and the wonder. Further to what my colleague Mark O'Neill said on the power of the real, it really is powerful to watch visitors come into the museum and see just how large a polar bear is or how large a fossil actually was. They're thankful that they're not live.

Sorry, I digress.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

I wasn't going to ask a 150th Anniversary of Confederation question, but you did invite me to, so how are you showcasing the role of the beaver in Canada and Confederation?

[Margaret Beckel]

We have one in our mammal gallery.

We're really going to focus on the story of the Arctic, and that's how we'll do it.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Try to think of few words there on the beaver.

[Margaret Beckel]

We have a wonderful display of a beaver in our mammal gallery. It has pride of place and we love our beaver.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

We will now go to Mr. Nantel from the NDP for five minutes.