Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly what I can generally say to you, Mr. Kerr, is that I think the War Museum, as a collecting institution focused on our national military history, welcomes any sort of discussion that focuses the attention of Canadians on our national military heritage. There's no question about that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, sir. Go ahead, Jim.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I could just respond quickly to Mr. Stoffer. One thing is important to mention, as I think you know. You've been to events at the War Museum several times. One of the messages in the War Museum, or one of the key ideas, is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. André.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Unfortunately, I have to say that we do not know the exact systems being used in other countries or other museums around the world. I am not familiar with those. That is not something we studied in preparation for our appearance here today. As for whether there would be a black market, it is hard to say, because it is really a matter of policy.

Veterans Affairs committee  Have we?

Veterans Affairs committee  I can comment specifically about military medals and insignia and say that we certainly are interested in collecting those and safeguarding them for Canadians, for future generations. Other forms of decorations I'd be a little bit concerned about commenting on, because it seems to be beyond my purview.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Vincent.

Veterans Affairs committee  I will check with my colleague, Mr. Whitham. We know where most of the medals are located throughout the country, including the Victoria Cross medals. We work with the institutions and families in possession of these medals. Furthermore, we have internal experts, researchers, acquisition committees, people who determine the value of all the museum's artifacts using established criteria that reflects our mandate.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can respond by saying there does not currently appear to be a significant market for most of the medals that would be within the scope of this bill. That is not to be taken as a value judgment on the worth of these medals to the national military heritage, but there does not currently appear to be a market.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not to any great degree. We certainly haven't studied it to provide any testimony here today. When this question was posed earlier at the committee, my colleague Jim and I were discussing it. To our knowledge, United States Congressional Medals of Honor, for example, are not permitted to be sold.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question, Ms. Crombie. In fact, the War Museum does work with a wide variety of other institutions across the country in preserving and presenting military heritage. There are a number of military medals and insignia that are not in the national military history museum, and they are quite properly preserved and presented in museums and institutions across the country.

Veterans Affairs committee  I really can't. We've not made that determination.

Veterans Affairs committee  We believe there are several million medal sets that will probably be available on the market over the next decade or so. Many of these are service medals. There are quite a number of medals. We're unable to determine what market may exist for them or what additional resources a collecting institution might require.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.