Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 27th, 2018

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I'll have to cut you off there. You might be able to continue.

We'll now continue with Mr. Breton.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for being with us today. I can't wait to visit your museums in eastern and western Canada. Today, with the help of your excellent presentations, you have made me want to go.

My first question will probably take all the time I have. Each of you can answer in turn.

The Department of Canadian Heritage has various government programs to assist the museum sector, the museum industry. Could you talk to me about how the Government of Canada can help you more in your activities, whether by commenting on current programs, or simply speaking from a financial or other point of view, and tell us how we can be good partners or better partners for you.

Perhaps we could start with Ms. Reinhardt.

[Kim Reinhardt]

We are a provincial museum, so we might be a little bit different from most of the museums you'll be having dialogues with in terms of how we access funding. I can say that every year we have been fortunate to bring in folks through the Young Canada Works program. That has been a huge benefit to us. It's been a great way for us to try out a new type of program or to just bring in new people in general. We've had in the last several years at least two different ones, often bringing in both official languages. It's been really wonderful to have somebody come in and just focus on developing an experience for people whose first language is French. In the last couple of years we've also brought in somebody to work on some of our cultural programming in terms of artistic and musical programs and activities. These are things we wouldn't be able to do if we didn't have Young Canada Works.

In the past we have had, through partnerships, some funding to develop some exhibits, but it's been a while since we've done that. ACOA helped us, through the foundation I mentioned earlier, to bring funds together for the travelling exhibit on the MS St. Louis, which is soon to open at the Canadian War Museum.

Moving ahead, I think that the partnership and collaboration will probably be a really strategic way forward, and not just for us but for all Canadian museums. We all have different challenges. I think the storage issue is a challenge for museums probably coast to coast. It certainly is a challenge for us. Unique to maritime museums are vessels in the water. Those provide very unique challenges. Our CSS Acadia is 104 years old. It's a national historic site, and it has no funding coming with it other than what we have. That is a real challenge. We have a partner on the waterfront with the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust's HMCS Sackville. They come down seasonally beside us. I know that they come to us and want to discuss possibilities in terms of the needs they have for their vessel in the water and the needs we have for our vessel in the water. I think it would be great down the road if there were some type of forum where we could talk to national partners, and other partners in the industry, to address unique projects like that.

I'll end it there.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you.

Could the people from the Vancouver museum answer the question?

[Tom Beasley]

Just very quickly, handing out money is not the solution. I mean, yes, of course museums are after money, but you need true partnership with the federal government. The federal government has expertise in collection management and funding sources. All museums need to mature on collections management. Ours is one of those. As Duncan said, we need to mature.

There are wonderful opportunities for the federal government to engage with museums, to tell stories, and to create dialogue on issues of importance across the country. To focus on our museum, a couple of things pop up. Of course, there's the St. Roch and the sovereignty issues it evokes. It's the vessel that went west to east and around North America first. There are sovereignty issues through our museum, and there are indigenous and reconciliation issues. I mentioned the Whaler's Shrine, which is a national historic site too, by the way. We have no funding to us for St. Roch and we have no funding for the national historic site Whaler's Shrine.

There are just a couple of issues there that I think resonate for the federal government in opportunities with museums to tell stories and create dialogue of importance to Canadians—the Northwest Passage, sovereignty, and indigenous issues.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thank you.

The bells are ringing. We're out of time, in any event.

To the witnesses, thank you for the presentations you made today. They were very helpful.

The meeting is adjourned.