Your question is quite timely and very appropriate.
The board of trustees is appointed on a regional basis to represent districts in Canada from coast to coast. It's acknowledged that the board of trustees requires various skill sets such as law, marketing, IT, governance, nominations, and so forth. The current board has trustees who are on their third term and many who are on their second term, and a number regions in the country are not represented. This has been the case since my appointment four and a half years ago.
When you have a core of trustees who are carrying a heavier load, it impacts the ability to drive down as far as the board might want to. We have a core of individuals who sit on the governance nominating committee, a core of individuals who sit on finance, and then we have the same core at the board carrying the weight again. I think we've done these people an injustice, a serious injustice, by continuing to rely on them and their good nature and time to deliver what we need in governance at the institution.
It's really important that the right horsepower is put behind our crown corporations, our not-for-profits, and our museums. I've had over 30 years of not-for-profit experience. It's tough enough when you have a full team, but it's much harder when you don't. We have been working with one hand behind our back, if I could put it that way.
Therefore, I appreciate very much your question, and we continue to hope.
Museums don't seem to have a great importance in this country. That's why the dialogue around the museum was on changing it to natural science. Science seems to have more of a dialogue now, and that's what the museum is about. I do hope that this committee can extend some very positive messaging around that into the process, because I'm sure it's affecting not only the Canadian Museum of Nature but also many of our crowns and organizations. This is unfortunate, and I'll just leave it at that.