Official Languages Committee on Nov. 6th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the 59^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today is Tuesday, November 6, 2012. We are here today pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(f) to study linguistic duality during the 150^th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017.

In front of us today we have Madame Inman from the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Prince Edward Island. We also have Mr. McAvity, Madame Vermette, and Madame Bachmann from the Canadian Museums Association.

We also have Mr. Caron, from Library and Archives Canada.

We'll begin with an opening statement from the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

[Jessie Inman, Chief Executive Officer, Confederation Centre of the Arts]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you today. I wish to thank this important committee for inviting me to speak to you about the 150^th anniversary of our great country.

As a living memorial to the Fathers of Confederation located in the birthplace of our great nation, Confederation Centre of the Arts pays a lively tribute to Canada's founding and ongoing development as a nation. Our centre reflects the achievements that began with the historic Charlottetown conference in 1864 and that encompass the evolution of every Canadian province and territory. The dream of an architecturally stunning building, a national memorial arts centre located in Canada's birthplace, was realized in 1964.

Located in Prince Edward Island, Confederation Centre is a multi-functional professional arts facility. Recognized internationally for its contributions to Canada's performing arts, the centre offers four theatres, with a seating capacity of 2,500. It is home to a national art gallery with a permanent collection of more than 16,000 works of art. It offers a full range of bilingual arts education programs for hundreds of youth and includes a new accredited school for the performing arts in cooperation with P.E.I.'s Holland College. Volunteers, local members, and corporate sponsors generously support the operation. Each year 250,000 people participate in our programming.

As everyone knows, the centre is home to the Charlottetown Festival and Canada's longest-running musical, Anne of Green Gables—The Musical, which has drawn millions of visitors to P.E.I. over the last 48 years. Equally important, though, we have produced over 70 original theatre productions employing hundreds of actors, dancers, musicians, and artistic creators from across the country.

Today the centre is committed to engage and empower the imagination of our youth and their unique ability to learn, to strengthen our national identity, and to increase the cultural and economic wealth of all Canadians.

We are committed to recognizing Canada's linguistic duality through programming and services. Most of our services to the public are bilingual, including our website, front-line box office and telephone services, art gallery materials and publications, and the Confederation Players, who interpret the history of Confederation via vignettes and guided tours in both official languages. Our arts discovery days program is offered in both languages. These services are a priority as our institution has a national mandate. The continued expansion of our bilingual services will be a priority for the centre as we prepare for the 2017 anniversary.

For our 2013 season, we are currently looking into staging a new, original Canadian musical. We are thinking about staging the musicalEvangeline, written by Ted Dykstra, the creator of 2 Pianos, 4 Hands. This great love story, based on the poem by Longfellow, tells the story of the famous Evangeline, who became separated from her beloved, Gabriel.

This musical honours the survival of French people and their culture, the indomitable human spirit, and the love between two people, all framed by the energizing music and dance of the Acadian, Maritime, and Cajun people. The musical will be presented mainly in English but will include French songs to ensure that we capture the beauty of the French language. We anticipate a cross-Canada tour, culminating in a return to Charlottetown in 2017.

If we are able to raise the extra funds, $500,000, required for this important project by our due date of Friday of this week, the exciting creation of Evangeline: the Musical will begin immediately.

The centre has been a leader in numerous cultural celebrations that have taken place over the last 48 years. The first, of course, was the opening of the centre itself, on October 4, 1964, by Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. With the financial support of all provinces and the federal government, the centre opened under the auspices of Prime Minister Diefenbaker with the premiers of all provinces present. At the time, Prime Minister Pearson stated eloquently, "[The Fathers of Confederation Memorial Building] is a tribute to those famous men who founded our Confederation. But it is also dedicated to the fostering of those things that enrich the mind and delight the heart, those intangible but precious things that give meaning to a society and help create from it a civilization and a culture."

In 2004 we initiated an exciting new heritage program, the Symons medal and lecture, which features prominent Canadians who focus on national issues such as politics, development, arts and culture, and heritage. This annual lecture is always offered with simultaneous translation services.

In 2007 our Confederation Centre Youth Chorus performed for thousands of war veterans, dignitaries, and international media at the dedication of the restored Canada National Vimy Memorial in France. The chorus hopes to participate in the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 2017.

In 2010 the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games proudly showcased Canadian achievements, and the centre was the proud secretariat for the Atlantic pavilion site, or what the media coined the “gold medal cultural pavilion”.

As part of the Cultural Capitals of Canada partnership with Canadian Heritage, the Confederation Centre's Young Company was thrilled to present The Talking Stick, a production starring the first-ever entirely first nations cast. We want to repeat this in 2017.

Our vision for 2017 is the proud cultural movement that inspires all Canadians by honouring our past, celebrating the present, and planning a bold future for Canada's artistic and cultural society. Most importantly, we are developing many ways to ensure that Canadians understand this incredible asset we have in our country, linguistic duality.

In 2014 the centre will be celebrating its own 50th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown conference. In cooperation with PEI 2014, plans are under way to mark these momentous occasions and to reach all Canadians. Such plans are precursors to Canada's 150th birthday in 2017, and they will include the creation, production, and tour of the next great Canadian musical, Rivir; a national commemorative sculpture erected on the centre's plaza; an enhanced presentation of Canada Rocks! The Hits Musical Revue; a modernized presentation of the bilingual Young Company production Les Feux Follets, representing Canada's multiculturalism; the continued staging of Evangeline: The Musical; an expansion of the national Symons medal and lecture series; a bilingual commemorative book highlighting the centre's outstanding activities over 50 years; and bilingual vignettes, tours, and performances by the Confederation Players, who interpret the events that led to the conception of Canada at the Charlottetown conference.

At Confederation Centre we express ourselves through the visual and performing arts. We are considering a number of theatre projects for 2014 and 2017 that will appeal to both Canadians and visitors to Canada. Among the projects is 1864: The Musical, an inventive take on the founding of Canada, populated by characters such as Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier.

The centre has undertaken a legacy project that will not only celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada but will also distinguish Canada as a world leader in art, music, and technology. For now called The Next Great Canadian Musical, Rivir, this new show will be a breathtaking, gravity-defying spectacle that will acknowledge Canada's rich heritage and great prospects. We seek to create an original theatrical experience that will rival musical classics such as The Lion King and Cats. This new musical will tour Canada and return to Charlottetown for the 2017 celebrations.

We are also in the early stages of developing a major bilingual visual arts exhibition concerning architectural projects that were part of Canada's centennial celebrations during the 1960s. They constitute an important record of the national identity, values, and aspirations of the day. We see the potential for a major travelling exhibition. Since the centre was the first centennial project to be completed, it would help celebrate the centre's 50th anniversary in 2014, tour nationally between 2014-2017, and culminate in an exhibition at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, which was the final federal centennial project, completed in 1969.

The Confederation Centre is a national historic site ideally suited to plan and host activities for the 150th anniversary. Situated within historic Charlottetown, the official birthplace of Confederation, the centre is not only Canada's national memorial to the Fathers of Confederation and the founding of this great nation; it is also a well-oiled machine teeming with bilingual talent and ability. We are ready to be a major contributor to 2017's celebration.

As host to millions of visitors over our 48-year history, we know how to celebrate, whether it be in P.E.I. or anywhere else in Canada.

I wish to sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to join you for this dialogue on how we can together celebrate Canada's 150^th anniversary.

All Canadians, from coast to coast, will have the chance to come together to commemorate our important role on the world stage and our unique heritage. We are proud to be able to begin our next 150 years with the possibility of building a future that is innovative, transformative and, most of all, Canadian, in a country with two official languages.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Ms. Inman.

I will now turn things over to the Canadian Museums Association.

[John McAvity, Executive Director, Canadian Museums Association]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would actually like to welcome all of you to this place, because you are in what was a museum. Perhaps someday it will be returned again, when we have better days, to the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

My name is John McAvity, and I am the executive director of the Canadian Museums Association. I am joined by a member of the board of directors, Karen Bachmann, who is also the director of the Timmins Museum, and Audrey Vermette, who is the director of programs and public affairs at the CMA.

The Canadian Museums Association has approximately 2,000 members all across Canada. Our members come from large metropolitan galleries to small volunteer-run museums. I'm pretty sure in each one of your ridings you can count a number of museums, because they are all across Canada. The museums are extremely popular; we receive about 60 million visitors per year to Canadian museums. They are major economic attractions, but they are also very important as educational institutions in our communities across Canada. They are places that teach our history, our art, and our environment. They promote tolerance and understanding among people. Approximately 48% of the Canadian population regularly go to museums, and a lot of schoolchildren go as well.

The Government of Canada has clearly underlined the value and importance of museums to society. We saw that in the federal budget. We have seen that in the recent announcement of the Canadian Museum of History, which we totally support. We have also seen that in the recent report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on 2017, and we are very pleased with all three of those reports.

If I might take a minute with respect to the federal budget, the good news there was that our sector, in a period of major restraint and cutbacks, was not cut. We were very pleased about that. We were very pleased that the government doubled the so-called insurance program for travelling exhibitions, the indemnification program. That was doubled.

We are also very pleased to see, initially, a major increase in youth unemployment funding of $50 million over two years, since we run such a program for museums, but unfortunately it has come to our attention that the program is not open to not-for-profit organizations, so there is still room for improvement of federal support of museums.

That is one of the reasons we have made the recommendation for what we call the “Canadians Supporting Their Museums Fund”, a program that we're proposing to encourage philanthropy, to encourage museums to become more self-reliant, and to help engage Canadians more in the heritage and arts field.

It should be noted that museums and galleries in Canada strive to provide services to various audiences. Most of the major museums—certainly the national and many of the provincial museums—offer services in each official language.

In addition, many of the smaller museums also offer second language service, such as Le Village Historique Acadien in Caraquet. It's an institution I know very well, which promotes the Acadian tradition. As well, the Revelstoke museum in Revelstoke offers information guides in English, French, German, and Dutch.

These are just two examples of the attempts of museums to be more accessible.

I would now like to turn to my colleague, Karen Bachmann, for part two.

[Karen Bachmann, Director, Curator, Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre, Canadian Museums Association]

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

In anticipation of this consultation on the events surrounding the 150^th anniversary of Confederation in 2017, the CMA and its board of directors organized a series of consultations with members and museum directors across Canada. The ongoing consultation process has generated some excellent ideas and suggestions, which we would like to present to you today.

From all the ideas shared by our members, there are three major recommendations that I would like to share with you, after which, my colleague Audrey Vermette will present more detailed program suggestions.

First, in 1967 Canada celebrated its centennial year in a very opulent manner, from Expo 67 in Montreal to small community projects. Virtually every community participated in a way, and we saw the emergence of hundreds of new museums. Major new museum buildings were opened across Canada, such as Nova Scotia Museum, the Ontario Science Centre, The Manitoba Museum, and many others across this land. Small community museums were also built as legacy gifts.

For 2017 we do not recommend large-scale capital projects of this magnitude. Given the economic climate, we believe it is just not appropriate to create new museums; however, many of the existing museum buildings do require upgrades or expansions. Some are housed in inappropriate facilities and do not properly house our national collections, nor do they welcome our visitors very well. These should be considered priorities for any capital funds available.

Second, we recommend the establishment of a formal, multi-year grants program to begin the development and implementation of these celebratory projects as soon as possible. This grants program could be coordinated by a federal commission similar to the Centennial Commission, established in 1963 for the 1967 celebrations, which administered centennial projects for the federal government and joint projects with the provinces and territories.

Additional funding from the private sector should and will be sought. Some projects can be fully funded from private sources, while others will require federal investments. A multi-year grant program will ensure that the tight timelines are met and will take into consideration the ancillary anniversaries leading up to the 150th anniversary of Canada.

Third, we wish to ensure that these celebrations are inclusive for all Canadians, with special recognition of our Canadian diversity and our aboriginal roots. Museums should celebrate with the presentation of artifacts and our intangible cultural heritage—the people, stories, songs, and traditions that continue to shape this country. The celebrations should not only be about looking back, but should also be about moving forward, innovating, and building Canada's cultural and heritage sector. A legacy project like the matching donations program will make that possible.

We would like to applaud you for your early start on this planning process so as to ensure that the results will be significant and meaningful for all Canadians.

Thank you.

[Audrey Vermette, Director of Programs and Public Affairs, Canadian Museums Association]

We have received a great number of programming concepts around the 150th anniversary from members and directors, some of which we would like to share with you today.

These ideas can be grouped in two overarching approaches: projects of national scope, which are implemented on a collective basis, and projects that each museum and gallery would undertake on their own or in collaboration with others in their areas.

Partnership and collaboration are key factors in the success of any major event. In the case of the 150^th anniversary, collaboration would take place not just between museums but also encompass partnerships with Crown corporations, private companies, organizations, and important events, such as Canada Day here in Ottawa and in London, England.

In terms of national projects, we would like to highlight five initiatives.

The first involves offering free admission to museums for a given period of time, as a "gift" to all Canadians. Museums already offer (or plan to offer) free entry on July 1^st. In 2017, we propose extending this offer to cover the period from National Aboriginal Day on June 21^st to July 1^st, thereby including Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. It should be noted that funding would be required to compensate museums for significant losses in revenue during a busy time of year.

The second involves creating a bilingual Canadian heritage passport that would encourage citizens to visit museums, galleries, and historic sites across the country. The passport would be stamped by each institution they visit. The passport program would be supported by a national promotional campaign and prizes for participating.

The third involves a bilingual national marketing campaign aimed at promoting various museum activities at the national level and raising public awareness of the importance and value of our history and culture.

The fourth involves creating major exhibitions. Our colleague mentioned an idea along these lines. This initiative could take the form of large-scale exhibitions at leading Canadian museums, travelling exhibitions crossing the country by train, for example, like the 1967 centennial train. We are also talking about virtual exhibitions devoted to presenting key images, archival materials, and artifacts from each museum as part of the 150^th anniversary, or an audio-visual exhibition in partnership with CBC/Radio-Canada and other national media that would broadcast programming that focuses on the 150 artifacts and works that define our nation's history. These national exhibitions, whether physical or virtual, would also be bilingual.

With respect to the idea of a national recognition program, the first part would include creating a medal awarded in recognition of museum-related volunteer work, which would be presented to 150 volunteers across the country, in partnership with our colleagues from provincial and territorial associations.

The second part is aimed at creating a national award for museum of the year, art gallery of the year, community museum of the year, and so on, for which voting and promotion would be performed by the general public, as in the 2011 VoteFundy campaign to include the Bay of Fundy as one of the world's seven new wonders.

At the local and provincial level, some of the initiatives that have been mentioned by our members include: encouraging and helping museums to develop and present special exhibitions celebrating the history of their community with 150 objects, as well as opening their doors for "behind the scenes" visits, which the public always finds interesting; off-site activities, in which exhibitions or programs would be presented in locations such as hospitals, care facilities, schools, shopping malls, airports, tourist offices, and so on.

Finally, at a professional level, the 150th anniversary represents a good opportunity for the heritage sector to invest in its future. Investing in research and development, establishing special fellowships and professional exchanges, exploring innovations in cross-sector partnerships and national forums—all these efforts will help to build a museum of tomorrow and ensure the long-term sustainability of our cultural institutions.

There are many good ideas coming forward to showcase a rich heritage and culture in 2017 and throughout the many events leading up to it.

We thank you for your time and would enjoy discussing this further with you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Caron, you have the floor.

[Daniel J. Caron, Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada]

Good day, Mr. Chairman, and honourable members of the committee.

Let me begin by saying thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here this morning in my capacity as deputy head and Librarian and Archivist of Library and Archives Canada.

Today my observations will echo the remarks I made last December before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which discussed our preparations for the 2017 celebrations. Your interest in Canada's 150th anniversary will allow me to expand on my previous insights.

Library and Archives Canada considers linguistic duality to be a fundamental dimension of our heritage. I would also like to elaborate on how we, as one of the pillars of our collective memory, will present a rich and vibrant reflection of this linguistic duality to Canadians through the activities planned for the 150th anniversary.

I know that this anniversary will be a monumental "memory event" in the history of our country, and an extraordinary opportunity to share and showcase our treasures. This is a clear expectation and certainly the most visible aspect of our contribution.

However, immediately underneath the raw material expression of LAC's role is perhaps the institution's most important contribution: indeed, not only will we make sure that Canadians have access to documents and artifacts all across the country, but we will also ensure that this material will accurately reflect what Canada is made of—its social fabric, if you will.

To paraphrase General Murray's exchange in 1764 with the Lords of Trade vis-à-vis the necessity of having a court system made of judges that would have the capacity to function in the colony, we will have to make sure that the documents, portraits, books, and maps are a relevant reflection of our culture in all of its multiple dimensions and contributions. This goes much beyond presenting translated versions. This will be about getting a proper assemblage of authentic artifacts reflecting our linguistic duality.

Before giving you some details on how we will contribute and how we are currently preparing ourselves for Canada 150, let me just say that one fundamental attribute of this contribution will be to always question ourselves on the "what". What are we going to include for Canadians through those various activities to ensure a fair reflection of this linguistic duality that is a key element of our social fabric? Yes, there will be activities in both French and English, but each will include that special dimension.

In terms of the focus of our participation, I believe that LAC's fundamental contribution to 2017 should revolve around greater access for all Canadians to the body of their documentary heritage, no matter where they live or which official language they speak. Providing the greatest possible access to Canada's documentary heritage will be our contribution to the national celebration.

The implications of this are twofold. First, and as I already mentioned, it means making our treasures accessible to Canadians. Second, and of paramount importance to me, is to continue to build an institution that will be able to collect, with its partners, the most relevant representation of our documentary heritage. And of course, an important part of this representativeness is that our linguistic duality be reflected.

Given the remarkable shift of communications into digital formats over the last 10 years, we are working diligently to ensure that we take advantage of the opportunities that advances in digital technology present. Indeed, optimal access is one of the driving forces behind our modernization process. And as you may know, some of these new technologies have often been a boon for institutions such as LAC that serve very diverse clienteles, including those that speak different languages.

For LAC, this means exciting opportunities that will allow us to build a collection that even more faithfully represents the Canada of 2012, 2013, 2017 and beyond.

With the Web, we will be able to capture a greater part, a better representation of what Canadians are saying on different topics. And regardless of the format of our bilingual documentary heritage, whether analog or digital, published or unpublished, we are striving to make sure that LAC is up to the challenge of collecting our citizens' contributions to the various Canadian discourses of national significance.

More concretely, LAC is currently working on several fronts that will lead the organization to 2017—an important year for both our country and our institution.

One critical component for LAC is the creation of multiple partnerships with organizations throughout the country.

Today, just a few blocks away from here, we are hosting our third pan-Canadian documentary heritage forum, bringing together representatives from Canadian universities, archives, libraries and museums, as well as provincial and territorial associations in order to explore opportunities for collaborative initiatives that will help us to better serve Canadians.

For example, LAC is exploring partnerships with members of heritage communities in order to allow us to participate meaningfully in the celebration. Among other things, this will help contribute to promoting the vitality and sustainability of official language minority communities throughout the country.

Looking ahead to 2017, LAC will be approaching its federal government partners about the possibility of taking the country's most important foundational documents out of LAC's vaults and giving Canadians a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them in person.

Along these same lines, LAC is also looking forward to being a partner of the Canadian History Museum and intends to contribute valuable heritage content to this new national institution that will officially open in 2017. This will provide yet another venue to showcase treasures from our vaults to Canadians. And, as we ramp up for 2017, another example of our collaborative work can be seen in our series of travelling exhibitions that bring Canada's documentary heritage directly to Canadians.

As we have done with our three current travelling exhibitions that will visit numerous locales across the country over the next few years, our intent is to work collaboratively with even more communities from coast to coast so that we can develop an impressive mosaic of projects that will bring LAC's treasures closer to Canadians where they live.

Capitalizing on our dynamic network of like-minded institutions, the goal is to launch several travelling exhibitions annually over the next four or five years, so that by 2017, the country is criss-crossed by a myriad of showcases that will portray Canada's heritage, linguistic duality and diversity.

Another angle of our preparations that I already alluded to earlier is the optimal utilization of digital technology. For example, targeting specific audiences, LAC is producing 24 immigration heritage online kits that enable users to find more information concerning ethno-cultural groups of interest. As well, LAC is launching an online toolkit that gives access to the stories of numerous aboriginal individuals and communities across Canada.

This path permits us to not only digitize and make accessible each day more documentary heritage via the Web, but also to treat digitally-born documentary production in real time.

Thinking back to Canada's 100th anniversary in 1967 and the famous centennial train, for 2017 LAC will be directing Canadians to what could be called a digital superhighway of documentary heritage that they can explore in the comfort of their homes.

To that end, as a first phase, we've already created a portrait portal that also reflects Canadian linguistic duality through its content. This gives all Canadians digital access to LAC's portrait collection, in particular to a representative sample of our miniature portraits and some of our more avant-garde photographs.

As we continue to digitize portions of our collections, we will attempt to bring tens of millions of images online to commemorate the country's 150th anniversary.

Our gift to Canadians will be to give them both greater access to their documentary heritage regardless of where they live or what language they speak, and an institution that can meet the challenges of the digital era. In doing so, LAC will ensure we are able to continue to capture the documentary heritage of this nation in all its subtleties.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I will now be happy to answer any questions at your convenience.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Caron.

We have 40 minutes for questions and comments.

Mr. Godin, you have the floor.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to welcome our witnesses.

As you know, we lost almost an hour because of votes. It's unfortunate because we could have a great discussion about this. Mr. Caron, I would like to ask some questions, and I will go right ahead.

What you have just told us is wonderful, but the federal government has made significant cuts in the 2012 budget. Would you agree with me that there have been significant cutbacks?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, budget-wise, our contribution was 10% economically.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

If I'm not mistaken, 215 positions will be cut.

[Daniel J. Caron]

I think that's correct.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

There are 215 positions that will be cut at Library and Archives Canada. Of those 215 positions, there are 21 out of 61 positions assigned to the archives and to archive assistance that deal with non-government documents.

[Daniel J. Caron]

I could give you the exact numbers. It's quite possible, but I should check.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Could you check and send this information to the committee?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, I will give you the exact numbers.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

The number of employees assigned to digitization and circulation will also be cut by 50%.

[Daniel J. Caron]

As for that, no cuts being made to the people doing the digitizing. There are cuts to the people taking care of circulation.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

You are talking about people involved in circulation.

[Daniel J. Caron]

The digitization is done by our employees and people outside the organization. We don't do all the digitization.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

The national archive development program was abolished in the 2012 budget. It was a $1.1 million program, isn't that right?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, that's correct.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

It enabled provincial, municipal and local archival offices to acquire, preserve and circulate archives. Is that right?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, that was their mandate.