Evidence of meeting #21 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was museum.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chairman, Cultura
Yes. It's more difficult to cross the Ottawa River than it is to cross the Atlantic.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
What are the challenges in Canada compared to those that you have seen in other countries? What can we learn from these other countries?
Chairman, Cultura
There aren't fewer challenges elsewhere. They are similar pretty much everywhere. But things vary here.
I have done a lot of work in Inuit and Cree communities. Clearly, because of the cold, it is more expensive to preserve objects at 20 degrees Celsius and at 55% humidity. It costs more than if you were in a place like where the Ak-Chin Indians live in Arizona, where you don't even need a system because the climate is dry. Everything is perfect.
We don't receive government assistance like what France gives its museums, for example. Our structure is mixed and relies a lot on public participation. That's one of our assets that needs to be supported and developed further. That's why friends of museum groups and groups that really want to contribute should be encouraged.
For instance, the Écomusée du fier monde has 2,000 volunteers. These are people in the Centre-Sud neighbourhood, the gay quarter, disabled individuals, people who are illiterate, and so on. Everyone has an impact on the museum and participates in finding common solutions for development within this ecomuseum.
That's an asset. There's a reason why this ecomuseum will be honoured in July at the International Council of Museums in Milan. It was honoured in Dubrovnik last year at what is called “The Best in Heritage”.
This ecomuseum is a very small, local museum in a Montreal neighbourhood that has been working for 30 years to improve the situation of individuals through the new museology that I call “museum of citizens”. It's an industrial and popular history museum.
The same is true in other Canadian provinces. I am working with academics in Regina, Saskatchewan. The province is developing six or seven ecomuseums in the northern part of the province. I need to go there in October to attend a symposium. There will be a sort of one-week session on how to improve the system to give it more momentum and so that things occur more quickly. When there are a lot of volunteers, the project often runs out of steam. If it takes too much time, people get older and, suddenly, they are no longer involved. There is no next generation. The tools needed haven't been provided and one person hasn't been put in charge to urge on the volunteers.
There are natural caregivers, and there are cultural caregivers. These people take care of society far more than you might realize.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
Thank you.
You mentioned training volunteers, but how could we train the people who work in our museums in Canada? We could offer work to students, for example. There is the Canada Summer Jobs program, but is there something we could do to improve the training of these people?
Chairman, Cultura
Yes.
A few years ago, there were correspondence courses, but they don't exist anymore. They were offered by the federal government, the Canadian Museums Association and a few provincial museum associations. They gradually disappeared but, these days, with the technology that's available, universities offer distance education courses everywhere. It would simply involve creating a system and employing professors. Personally, I would give courses every week if necessary.
Chairman, Cultura
I would talk to the students or to a museum director in Yellowknife, for example.
It's done informally, of course, through networks that we create among ourselves. However, there could be a structure to bring it all together, a kind of training program, a tele-university or a “tele-something”, that would make content available to volunteers, to retirees and to people at home. They could take a course every week, advance and support the director of the local museum. We would create expertise, we would create knowledge. I won't live long enough to see what that might mean.
Liberal
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I would like to know where I could sign up for your classes, if you did them through distance learning. That is an excellent idea.
I have one quick question I wanted to ask you. It is really a hypothetical question—or not quite, anymore.
You know that virtual reality is becoming a technology that now will be available to us, which means not simply going and looking at something, but being in it. There is the ability to put on these things and be in the space. Would that be something that would be of benefit—the ability to see the three-dimensional components of a museum, for instance?
Chairman, Cultura
Luc Courchesne, from Montreal, the one who created SAT, the Society for Art and Technology....
Twenty years ago now, he started creating immersive experiences on 360 degree screens. Then he did them in spheres, and he has always continued with his experiments. His company is now large-scale with IMAX and all kinds of other formats. Given this reality, we realize that one day perhaps we will—
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I hear a cellphone ringing, which means that the meeting is ending.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you so very much, Mr. Rivard.
Thank you, everyone.
This was an excellent meeting. I want to thank Mr. Van Loan for his suggestion.
Chairman, Cultura
I want to say good luck to the committee. You have quite some work to do, and I appreciate having met you today.