Canadian Heritage Committee on June 14th, 2016

[Manon Blanchette]

New media could allow us to reach people where they live. We have briefly talked about marketing and communications campaigns, but the trend in museums at the moment is what we call transactional. People can be mobilized at home through social media. They can even help museums conduct research on the works of art or artifacts that they would like to see exhibited. Perhaps that would allow people to become engaged. That is what we want. Museums are much closer to the public than they were 40 years ago. People come to museums and want to participate in the museum experience. It’s a question of exposing and expressing what matches their own nature.

In the regions, that could be a solution, in my view.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Ms. Bachmann, Ms. Burrows-Johnson, do you share Mrs. Blanchette’s view?

Do you think Madame Blanchette was right when she said that for you—

[Karen Bachmann]

Absolutely.

In Ontario, that would work very well. Collaborating with larger museums and with our colleagues could only support our work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

We will go to Mr. Vandal for the Liberals, for seven minutes, please.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

It is very important, very interesting.

You mentioned something about a council of indigenous peoples to offer guidance on the future relationships between indigenous people and museums. I've learned that in 1994 a task force on museums and first peoples was summoned by your organization. Could you tell us the highlights of that task force?

[John McAvity]

I'd be delighted to.

That task force really turned the page, as it were. It led to a lot of repatriation by museums of human remains and sacred materials. It led to a lot of co-management agreements. It led to a training program being set up for aboriginal people in museum studies, and it led to the creation of a number of aboriginally owned, built, and operated museums in Canada. There are quite a few now as a result.

However, that was 30 years ago, and we've been wanting to dust off that report to look at what worked, at what didn't work, the causes of delays, and what's missing. We in fact have a meeting at 11 o'clock this morning with the Assembly of First Nations to discuss our proposal. Our proposal isn't just over the 1992 report; it's also over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations.

I recently met with Murray Sinclair, the senator and former chair. He's going to be the keynote speaker, we hope, at our convention. We are also looking at the UN declaration, which was just ratified by Canada a few weeks ago. All of this is in the mix. It is a two-year or so study that will be undertaken, and it's a major commitment that we really stand by. We wanted to share that with you and would be delighted to come back and report to you.

The other point I would like to make while we're talking is that one of the reasons we're so excited by your studying the question of museums is that this has never been done by this committee or any other Parliamentary committee before. There have been studies done on Canadian culture writ large, but that's everything from broadcasting to social media to stage plays and acting—everything. Your study is really from the bottom up. We believe a bottom-up study is going to be far more meaningful. It will be far more focused and practical.

We're not here with ideas and recommendations that are irresponsible. We want to present you with very responsible recommendations. We don't believe that government should pay 100% of the bills for museums. We believe museums should have their resources very balanced. We have before you a recommendation of how we could increase philanthropy and donations to museums in Canada.

These are the kinds of things—

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

I'm sorry to be so intrusive—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You wanted to interrupt to ask another question?

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Yes.

We only have seven minutes, and I'd like to get a few questions in.

If I were a tourist in Canada, which I hopefully will be in a few weeks, and I wanted to see the best of indigenous museums, where would I go?

[John McAvity]

Well, there is Pointe-à-Callière, the archaeological site. The Six Nations museum at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario, is excellent. There is a brand new Cree museum in northern Quebec, which is a spectacular building and operation. We gave it an award, in fact. There is the U'mista Cultural Centre in British Columbia. There are a number of them all across the country.

In fact, there is a major cultural centre out here on Montreal Road that Douglas Cardinal just designed. It's a wellness centre and cultural centre, the name of which is on the tip of my tongue and I can't quite get it out.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

It sounds as though there are a lot of ideas right in this room.

You mentioned creating conditions for more private donations. Can you speak more about that?

[John McAvity]

Yes.

We're looking at a short-term program of matching donations. In fact, we put it to all parties during the election campaign, and one of the parties, the Conservative Party, adopted it, but slightly differently.

We would like to see that. We think it's a practical program for about a five-year period in which donations would be matched. They would not just go to endowments, but to what the priorities may be of that institution. We believe this will double the size of private donations to Canadian museums.

Currently about 9% on average is about how much comes in. In the United States, it's about 40%. If we can take it up to about 20%, I think that will be a very achievable and realistic objective. That's a matching donations program, dollar for dollar.

[Susan Burrows-Johnson]

The continuation of your committee's investigation into the public value of museums would also heighten Canadians' understanding about what we do in service to the public.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have a minute.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

I'm going to offer you the floor to tell us what you think the priorities should be for us in the near future.

[John McAvity]

We would urge you to do a review of the existing federal strategy and the programs in place. You will find programs that are very well intentioned, and there are great staff behind these programs. They're working with very limited resources and the needs of the museum community are largely not being met.

Certainly the Cultural Spaces Fund is a very focused capital program. Young Canada Works is a runaway success. However, we're turning down 50% of the summer job applications; we can't handle them. We've had to turn down 90% of internships, and now we're expecting an increase to that program; it was in the federal budget. During the election campaign the Liberal Party promised us a $5 million increase in that program just for museums. We're looking forward to seeing that. That will make a difference.

These are the kinds of priorities and activities that are there. That would be number one.

Number two would be to help us help ourselves. Help us raise more money, create the conditions for more sponsorship and more donations in the community, and help us get the story of Canada out there. Help us save the story of Canada and preserve it and tell the different stories of Canada, because there's not one narrative; there are many.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. McAvity.

Now we go to the second round, which is for five minutes.

We start with Mr. Van Loan, sharing with Mr. Waugh.

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

Thank you.

Madame Blanchette, your museum, Pointe-à-Callière, has arguably become the leading museum of Montreal in a very short period of time. I was wondering if you could comment on how your own museum reflects the changing role and changing nature of museums, why it is becoming such a success, and what that means for other museums.

[Manon Blanchette]

It is true that our museum is enormously successful. It’s a very unique museum, unique in Canada, I believe, because it is located on an archeological and historic site. The museum spotlights the place where Montreal was founded. The plan is to extend the site from the Place de Youville to McGill Street, which is the place where the Parliament of the united Province of Canada met. That plan is currently being developed.

That uniqueness is one of the factors that makes the museum successful. Another factor is that it is tied into school programs. What we present in the museum is part of the required learning material for school students. So we have an impressive number of students who come to the museum with their teachers to learn how Montreal was born.

Another unique factor about the museum is the use of new technologies in presenting exhibits. It was already a significant factor in 1992, and I believe museums have used the Pointe-à-Callière museum as a model. In 1992, our museum already had an interactive presentation with evocative images, technological images, inside which visitors could participate and ask questions.

The presentation in Pointe-à-Callière is dynamic and uses new technologies to draw the public into a unique and multisensory experience. We go as far as the use of light to engage the public and ultimately to create a space for meditation in the Fort de Ville-Marie where people can relive the experience of the first founders of Montreal.

That is what makes the museum attractive.

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

I'll turn it over to Kevin.

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

Thank you.

It's interesting, and thanks go to my colleagues for mentioning it. We should have an in-depth review of museums here. We're doing media right now, but we've never done museums in the heritage committee.

You've expanded by 2,100 museums and art galleries in the last 30 or 40 years. You've talked about funding difficulties, but yet you've had massive expansions. Where is it coming from?

[John McAvity]

It comes from people who want to do it. We can't control the number of museums. Anyone can open a museum.

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

I'm part of one; keep going.

[John McAvity]

Oh, are you? Do tell.

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

That's the problem.