Mr. Speaker, one of the things I found rather stunning in the member's speech was his statement that the government would help the museum come to people in their communities, yet this is the very government that cut the funding for all the local museums.
I sat in this House several years ago, and on our side we fought against the cuts to local small museums, many of which have had to shut down. I find it rather puzzling that his argument to these changes now is to enable the fantastic collection in our Museum of Civilization to go to these small museums, many of which have now shut down.
In 1967, the government made the decision to give money to all the local communities to celebrate the centennial, and that was a fantastic idea. The decision of this government is to concentrate the money in the museum here instead.
The hon. member mentioned the fact that many families do not have the resources to come to this museum, so I find it very puzzling. It is a very nice idea that we could have this collection go to local museums, but many do not exist anymore.
I would also remind the member that I stood up and fought the government that would have reneged on providing support to the Royal Alberta Museum. It finally lived up to its word and provided that funding. If we had not fought for that, the government would have cut that too.