Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee and parliamentary secretary, on behalf of our board of trustees and its chair, Gary Polonsky, as well as our president and CEO, Denise Amyot, I would like to thank you for your invitation and the opportunity to present our point of view.
Please allow me first to give you a brief overview of who we are and what we do. I will make it brief.
The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation's vision is to engage all Canadians with their scientific and technological past, present, and future.
The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation operates the three national museums that house the richest collection of Canadian achievements in science, technology and innovation. Those museums are the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Agriculture Museum and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
We are here today to provide you with an overview of what history can teach us about the public sector's contribution to innovations in transport, particularly in the area of aviation in Canada.
You might be interested to know that we have embarked on a six-year energy literacy initiative entitled let's talk energy: engaging ideas for Canada's future. This initiative aims at helping Canadians gain a deeper awareness of energy issues facing our country and understanding the underlying science. We have mobilized the creative capacity of the three museums in the corporation to do three major exhibitions on this theme and have enlisted 24 science centres and museums from across Canada, so far, to engage Canadians on this theme.
We are keenly interested in presenting the technological innovations that will help our country become a world leader in sustainable energy production and consumption, and notably for this committee, which is why I mention it, transportation, infrastructure, and communities.
Technology, innovation, energy, and sustainability are the key thrusts for the future of our country and our museums are committed to not only engaging Canadians about their heritage, but also to providing the incubator for the birth of innovations that will secure our future. As museums our remit is science and technology. Innovations in transportation feature heavily in our collection, which is celebrated through our exhibitions and programs. Most notably, these include new composite materials and technology in biofuels, bioplastics, and biocrops.
I wish to commend the committee for engaging in this study. The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation is supported by curators; Dr. Rénald Fortier is with us today. They look after collections covering marine, rail, and road modes of transportation, as well as aviation—which is ours—and could be at your disposal to answer questions salient to these areas of concern at future meetings.
I will ask Dr. Rénald Fortier, our chief curator for aviation, to present a historical perspective on the history of aviation in Canada and the importance of the contribution of the Canadian public sector in supporting innovation in that industry. He will focus his remarks by period in order to give them a structure and contemporary context. You will see that success for a high-tech industry like aviation depends upon the adoption of a holistic approach to the environment that supports and nurtures it. This is not realistically feasible with private sector resources alone. This environment is supported by a number of key elements, namely education, research, training, infrastructure, certainly public policy, support for domestic and foreign markets, and active retention of expertise, which is really key especially given the ebb and flow of the market needs in conflicting sales and operating conditions.
Continuity is paramount to success given the longer gestation periods of such high-tech machinery, and the fragility of the infrastructure and markets that support it. As a national museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum is striving to be an integral part of this infrastructure through the creation of a creative campus that will provide the incubator for generating innovative solutions to the issues that face the industry and by showcasing not only its history but its future. We are part of the supply chain.
A historical overview is important in order to better understand where investments in this holistic environment and its infrastructure are necessary, and so at this juncture, I will pass the microphone to Dr. Rénald Fortier.
Thank you.