Mr. Speaker, the NDP is pleased to speak in support of Bill C-64, an act to provide for the indemnification of travelling exhibits. It is easy to see what the motivation was for the introduction of this bill given the research we have been doing.
Currently for museums to field travelling exhibitions they have to undertake commercial insurance offset by help from the federal government for a total of $6 million per year. In order for Canadian museums to tour shows we are paying up to $6 million a year to commercial insurance in the event that they may suffer damage or loss to some of the artefacts or exhibits, whereas the empirical evidence shows it can be far more cheaply undertaken by a socialized system. If the government undertakes the risk and the liability, it will cost far less.
In the United States the American government undertakes the risk for $3 billion worth of artefacts touring the U.S. In 23 years of operation there have only been two claims amounting to payouts of less than $100,000. The American model underwrites a far greater amount of value in artefacts and the empirical evidence has been that only two claims were made for less than $100,000.
We are spending $6 million a year to the commercial insurance industry. It is only common sense that this is one of those good examples of where government can do it better. Rather than have this insurance product contracted out, if we keep that work in house, we all reap the savings and the museums can feel more comfortable in taking their exhibits on the road.
Many of us undervalue the role Canadian museums play and the level of interest in the community for Canadian museums and the good work they do. According to our research there are over 24,100 employees of Canadian museums, a figure that may surprise many members here. There are also 55,000 volunteers which indicates to me huge interest and support in the community for the work they do.
An even more telling figure of the value of our Canadian museums and why we should support them with this bill is that 54.9 million people visited museums last year. In a country of 30 million people that means almost every Canadian went twice to a museum, or some people went an awful lot. That is all the more reason to share the wonderful products, the message, culture and heritage Canadian museums hold with more Canadians by taking their shows on the road.
Museums have not been so inclined to get involved with travelling exhibitions, whether of their own artefacts or of touring international shows, because of the terrible risk they face in terms of loss of artefacts. They are dealing with priceless products, absolutely world class items in many cases. There is no possibility of ever replacing them accurately. As a result the commercial insurance industry has no choice but to put a very high value on those products.
I was involved recently with a travelling show at the Museum of Man and Nature in Manitoba. I was very pleased to take part in it. I raise this only as an example of the value of taking shows out of the museum and into the communities so more people can see them.
Museums can actually play a role, and always have, in shaping social policy through education. This one example was the very pressing and timely issue of child labour.
The Museum of Man and Nature to its credit put together an exhibit of photographs by David Parker called “Stolen Dreams”. It dealt with this man who travelled all throughout the world and found examples of child labour. It did not stop there. The museum put together a multimedia interactive exhibit. There would be a photograph of a child working in a brickyard in India and a lever next to it. Some kid looking at the picture could push on that lever and actually feel how heavy it is to carry a load of bricks for 12 hours a day.
This exhibit will be taken beyond Manitoba. I know it is going to Vancouver and all around the country. CIDA has helped to put this show on the road. By travelling, this show will expose and sensitize far more kids than could possibly have been exposed to this very real and pressing international issue. It is very important.
I raise that as one example of the importance of museums ignoring their physical barriers, the walls of their own buildings. Rather than trying to take Mohamed to the mountain, the mountain will be taken to Mohamed.
It makes sense to do this internally. We can look at socialized auto insurance. No one who has ever lived in a province that is lucky enough to have government run auto insurance would ever argue that we should go back to the commercial carriers because we were simply paying too much.
The Government of Canada was paying too much to insure these artefacts. Now we know. All we have to do is look to our neighbours to the south. We did not have to spend $6 million a year to underwrite some of these touring exhibits. It is $100,000 a year in the United States to insure $3 billion worth of products. We are talking about a maximum value of $450 million per exhibit.
There is one thing I would criticize about Bill C-64. I would hope people would review it when it gets into further debate. Exhibitions under Bill C-64 must have a value in excess of $500,000 to qualify for the program. I am a little suspect of that. I wish that could be altered because in the example I gave, whether it qualified or not, we would have been dealing with photographs and with relatively inexpensive materials. The artefacts were not as important as the interactive value. Really $500,000 would preclude a lot of valuable exhibits from being underwritten and taken on the road.
I hope that the figure could be brought down to something more realistic. I am not sure why there has to be a minimum dollar value unless there is a breaking point where it simply is not worth the paperwork. If the exhibit was only worth $500, there may be more than $500 worth of administration to register the articles and so on. A realistic figure would be $100,000. If the exhibit has a net value of $100,000, it should qualify under this otherwise very worthy program.
Museums need a break. The Government of Canada should not be paying more than it needs to but neither should the museums. Look at what they have been facing in recent years.
There has been a huge escalation in the number of museums and related institutions in the country. In 1972 the Canadian Museums Association listed 838 museums, galleries and institutions. As of 1999 there were 2,271 listings in the directory. It has expanded 200-fold.
Going back to 1990-91 the total museum funding was $210 million, give or take. It went to a high and spiked at almost $220 million in 1995. In the year 1999-2000 it will go down to $193 million. They have actually seen quite a cutback in their overall budget funding in a period of time where the number of institutions was escalating. I would assume the burden then falls to more volunteers, more community input or other levels of government funding museums. Many of them are still operating in a very healthy fashion.
The museum in Dawson City where I used to live had quite an impact on the community. It helped to shape and save the whole community. When I moved to Dawson City it was a ramshackle town of falling down buildings. Nobody cared a hoot if Dawson City washed away into the Klondike River because it was an old ghost town with a couple of leftovers still hanging around from an old time.
In 1970 or so Parks Canada had the common sense, prior to all this stuff slipping away, to try to hang on to some of the artefacts that were disappearing like crazy. The museum got going and started to give value to these products which otherwise had no value; they were junk. Tourists could pick up an artefact and take it home, resulting in the history of the place disappearing. It was truly the people with the foresight to start the museum who saved the town by giving value to articles which otherwise had no value.
Dawson Creek has now been rebuilt. It is a tourist destination, a mecca. The real catalyst was the people, including the Parks Canada people to their credit, who had the foresight to start to catalogue and chronicle the wonderful rich history of Dawson Creed.
Bill C-64 recognizes the value of Canadian museums and the way Canadians feel about their museums. It does not go as far as talking about restoration or overall museum funding—that is not the nature of the bill—but it does help and speaks to the value that Canadians give to their museums. Our caucus is proud to support Bill C-64.
