Thank you, Gary, for being here, and for this tremendous effort you're bringing forward. I think it's pretty clear there's consensus that this is something we all want to see happen.
Before I get into the questioning, I want to get down to the value of these medals and the fact that they're on the open market now. I don't know how you'd ever change that.
In my view, you might even create a more difficult situation in a black market where these things could be worth three, four, or five times what their—I hate to say it—market value is bringing. I catch what Mr. Stoffer is saying in terms of the sentiment, but the reality is that we have to do what we can do to make sure we protect these.
In that regard, I'm very familiar with a person you've mentioned in your comments, Mr. Dave Thomson from St. George, Ontario, which is in my riding. He searches eBay and other areas to do what he calls “repatriating” the medals to the families of the soldiers they belong to. He does a lot of research in trying to find the families once he has secured the medals. I know you're familiar with him. He actually solicits private donations in order to be able to bid on these, because he doesn't have the financial resources to do it himself.
This is how it's happening today. I'm not so certain that it always has to be governments that fund the repatriation of these medals. I'm sure there are other organizations and individuals. I actually help him find the extra $50 or $100 or whatever he needs to make the next bid to ensure he gets that medal, because I know what he's going to do with it when he gets it. He's going to do the right thing, which is to seek out the family. If he can't, he donates it.
In my community, we have what's called the Canadian Military Heritage Museum in Brantford, Ontario, which is a private collection, believe it or not, of war memorabilia. The museum is thought to be ranked number two in the country now in terms of honouring our military and the objects around it; it's second to our military museum here in Ottawa. I extend an invitation for all of you to come and visit this wonderful place of honour for our military.
So these are the kinds of things that are happening and I'm wondering... That was kind of a preamble to my question, which is about two things. Can you foresee the fact that government doesn't have to fork over the complete cost of this, that this could be a partnership of community organizations, private individuals, and government, perhaps when necessary, to recover these?
Secondly, there are site-specific...both geographically in the case of Stratford and Perth and their museum—they want to keep it in the area of where the individual resided—and there are other places where other museums... In your concept around this, is there a specific location you think they'd like to go...? There are two questions there.