We received a majority mandate. In order to achieve a balanced budget, we have to make some decisions. As a government, we decided to make cuts in certain areas, but not in others. That was based on a significant analysis. I'm talking about the department, my office and myself. It was a matter of looking at every penny of the $2.9 billion invested by the Department of Canadian Heritage and finding the best way to save money without affecting any issues that are very important to Canada.
We decided to not cut any money from our five-year investment in the roadmap for official languages. In addition, we decided not to cut our investment in the Canada Council for the Arts. We also decided not to cut a single penny from our investment in museums across Canada. I think those institutions play a really crucial role in helping people properly understand our country's heritage. I am referring to our geological heritage, cultural heritage, or the heritage of aboriginals or science and technology. As you know, since you represent a Winnipeg riding, our commitment was to create the new Museum for Human Rights in that city. We also made a commitment to create the new Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, in Halifax. Those were my commitments as Minister of Canadian Heritage. That has been confirmed in our budget, and we will continue to move in that direction.
When we have institutions that do good work in both official languages and young people see the results of that, we realize that we are certainly creating a heritage for our official languages that will benefit young people in the future.