Official Languages Committee on Nov. 6th, 2012

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

That was their mandate.

Now we are getting ready for 2017.

Mr. Caron, you are speaking as if everything is fine. You have often spoken about respect for both official languages. Yesterday, my office received a complaint from someone who had given money to Library and Archives Canada. He was sent a letter that was only in English. He was told that if he wanted to receive the letter in French, he had to call a 1-800 number. When he spoke with Library and Archives Canada employees, he asked that his name be put on the French list, and he was told that the system was not set up that way.

You're telling us about a major digital system where Canadians will be served in both official languages. You are asking for money and you aren't even able to correspond in French, one of the official languages.

[Daniel J. Caron]

I'm a little surprised by your comment because we aren't asking for money. I don't know if it really was Library and Archives Canada, but our communications are generally done in both languages. I'm not saying that there aren't exceptions.

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

Would you like us to do a follow-up?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, because I would like to know what it is all about.

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

Don't worry, Mr. Caron. There will be a follow-up.

Let's talk about the plans and priorities report that the minister submitted to the House. You prepare the report. Do you agree with me?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes.

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

There is no mention of official languages. At a previous meeting, Claude Gravelle raised this issue and asked why they were not included in the government's plans and priorities report. I was not at that committee meeting.

Now, we are looking at the 2012-2013 report and official languages are not even mentioned. The reason for my reaction is that, in your presentation, you kept saying that your organization, Library and Archives Canada, respects both official languages. We have invited a lot of department officials and we have told them that official languages were not mentioned in the plans and priorities report. You still chose not to talk about it. Why is that?

[Daniel J. Caron]

We are definitely going to include that aspect. I can tell you that official languages are part and parcel of our institution's culture from all points of view; all the work we do and all our work practices reflect that. We gather documents that reflect Canadian society. It is a given for us. We can mention it in our plans and priorities.

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

Let's move on to another topic.

I am afraid that, in 2067, there will not be much left in regional and community libraries. We are doing away with such valuable things. People are dreading it and they do not support the cuts that were imposed on Library and Archives Canada. How are you dealing with that? You are eliminating so many jobs. Based on what we have heard and as you said, 50% of the digitization and circulation staff is being cut. With significant cuts like that, what will you do in 2017 to ensure that a legacy is left for people?

[Daniel J. Caron]

First of all, I think that we are capitalizing on technologies. To answer your question, I will just give you one example. In my view, it is important for people to understand the context.

In the past, we used to have to manually describe all the materials that were coming in. Under the legal deposit system, for instance, we were responsible for describing all the books. Today, this operation can be directly done digitally. Since the entries are already created by the publishers, we do not need to redo the work. That used to be a lot of work. I cannot tell you exactly how many people were doing that job, but I can certainly tell you that there is no longer a need to do that work. Much of this type of work is becoming increasingly unnecessary. That includes the description of archival materials. Since we now get the materials in digital form, we can automatically search inside those materials.

We will continue to do what we used to do with the analog system, but we are getting ready. Like all the institutions around the world, we are even lagging a bit behind because materials are now largely digitized. Materials will perhaps never be printed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Monsieur Gourde is next.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today. It is very interesting.

Could you tell us about your thought process behind the 2017 150^th anniversary celebrations? In listening to your presentations, my understanding is that it had already started. As you know, we are very sensitive when it comes to linguistic duality. We would like your organizations to integrate it and promote it during the celebrations.

Could you explain where your organizations are at in the thought process?

[Audrey Vermette]

In terms of the Canadian Museums Association, the museums obviously play a very important role in the celebrations. We must also not forget the role museums play in preserving our heritage. We started thinking about this last year.

As to the process, we are directly consulting with our museum professionals in regions across the country and in all the provinces and territories to find out what they think about the role of the museums in the celebrations and to see what their programming ideas are. The goal is to have a fair national representation. Of course, it isn't as easy for some of the more remote communities.That is why we wanted to hear not only from the major national museums, but also from the small community and regional museums.

The process is ongoing. We often organize discussion groups with our museum professionals. We want to keep the dialogue open and to come up with more ideas on the vital role of museums. So the programming ideas that we have shared with you today are not just our ideas. They are also the ideas of the 2,000 members of the association, across Canada.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Ms. Inman, would you like to add something to that?

[Jessie Inman]

May I comment?

The Confederation Centre of the Arts is a national organization with a national mandate. We have relationships and networks in every province and territory in the country. Most of the provinces and territories contribute financially to the organization, along with financial support from the Province of Prince Edward Island and Canadian Heritage, so on that level, we have a large network.

We also use social media extensively to ensure that we're reaching Canadians across the country and that they're aware of our programs. We're also part of many arts organization networks that exist in Canada. We're members of various groups and we get our message out through all of these media, but truly, we use social media a lot these days because it is just so much cheaper than other kinds of advertising.

As we all know, TV advertisements are very expensive now, but for 2017 we're hoping that there will be additional funding that will allow us to advertise at the maximum level across the country.

Thank you.

[Daniel J. Caron]

As I said earlier, we have two objectives. The first objective is an internal objective. We are hoping to develop an institution that will be able to continue to do its job, so that we can celebrate 2017, and subsequent years, with documentation. We are facing considerable challenges in terms of acquisitions, preservation and access. We are working on all those fronts to ensure that the institution is going to meet its obligations with policies and tools that can work both with the analog and the digital system. It is a huge challenge and we are working on it.

As for our presence across Canada and our role to make our content known, we are working on two fronts. First, we are being selective about the materials we digitize, because not all the documentation deserves to be digitized. We continue to follow our digitization plan to make as many materials as possible available on the Internet for the whole country and abroad.

Second, we are doing a lot of work with partners. In fact, we have worked with the Confederation Centre of the Arts and other museums in the country to develop joint exhibitions. We are slowly but surely building momentum for travelling exhibitions that will go from one place to another and that are multiplying every year. In 2017, we will really have quite a strong presence across the country with these various travelling exhibitions that will continue until 2017. So we are already starting to get these exhibitions on the road.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

With your archive digitization project, perhaps Canadians will no longer need to come to Ottawa to visit the Library and Archives Canada. As a matter of fact, we will be able to access much of the library directly from our homes with our laptops.

How long do you think it will take to have about 50% of the archives on the Internet?

[Daniel J. Caron]

It is very difficult to give you an answer because we are constantly producing materials and finding new ones. I feel that I would be lying to you if I gave you a date.

I think that you are quite right. We are using our various devices to access that information. We are seeing that within our organization. Fewer and fewer people are coming in person. I think that there are about 70 visitors a day, whereas there are half a million visitors a month on the Internet. That is increasingly how people visit us.

We would like everything that is created digitally to be available right away. That is our ultimate objective. So we are trying to shorten the time between when materials are acquired and when Canadians can access those materials. We are working a great deal on that. There will be no wait time. It will be a direct link.

Furthermore, we have looked at our collections to see what needs to be digitized. Many things are very interesting and need to be digitized. But there are also a lot of things that are perhaps less interesting or that are going to appeal to small segments of the population. So those materials can wait. They will not be necessarily digitized, they might never be digitized.

It is a gradual process, but I think that, by 2017, our objective is to have a substantial proportion of the most important and most frequently used documents available to Canadians on the Internet.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

That would definitely be a great legacy for all Canadians.

[Daniel J. Caron]

That is exactly right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Monsieur Godin.

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

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order, or rather I have a correction to make.

You are right, Mr. Caron. You did not ask for money. It was the Canadian Museum of Civilization. But you are not off the hook so easily. In fact, the invoice came from you and it was in English, although our request was in French and it came from a third party.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

That is not a point of order; that is a point of discussion, a piece of information.

Go ahead, Mr. Dion.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for joining us in this museum and thank you for the work that you do. The heart of a country beats to the rhythm of its museums, its history, and its archives. Your work is very important.

My first question

is to Madame Inman. In 2017, what are we celebrating again?

[Jessie Inman]

In 2017?