Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
I am Mr. Stephen Henley, chairman of the board of trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature. I'm joined today by Meg Beckel, president and CEO of the museum, and Charles Bloom, vice-president, corporate services.
At the outset, I would like to assure the committee that I and the entire board take the recommendations of the special examination seriously and have monitored and will be monitoring management's execution of its action plan.
I'll speak briefly about the museum and then hand it over to Meg, who will speak to the action plans from the recommendations.
We are Canada's national museum of natural history and natural sciences, one of six national museum not-for-profit corporations. Our museum dates back 160 years to the Geological Survey of Canada. The doors of the current museum building originally opened in 1912. A $230-million renovation was completed in 2010, resulting in what now is a state-of-the-art museum building of international first rank.
We receive more than half a million visitors per year, and we and other national museums are the leading tourist attractions in the national capital. Like the other museums, we provide an education-based offering within the entertainment and leisure sector. But perhaps unlike the other museums, at the heart is scientific research. We are a national leader in research and have a strong international presence, representing Canada in many scientific bodies.
The government-funded scientists and experts at our research facility in Gatineau, Quebec, maintain and provide access to a scientific collection of 14.6 million specimens that tell the story of Canada's natural heritage and history. These cover all aspects of the natural world: botany, zoology, mineralogy, and palaeontology.
I will now hand it over to president and CEO Meg Beckel to speak to the business operations and the special examination.