Canadian Heritage committee  We don't have a role there. That's why we establish professional standards as thresholds through which to access the program. If it is a not-for-profit organization that calls itself a museum but doesn't employ professional standards to operate a museum, that's the cut-off point.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, not for Young Canada Works. That program has a component specifically geared toward museums of the type you're describing, small museums.

Canadian Heritage committee  However, it's very competitive. There's a lot of demand in that program.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, actually the museums assistance program and the Canadian Conservation Institute combined funds to support the Ontario Museum Association to conduct a major program aimed at...almost training the trainer to help spread best practices for museum storage. That has been identified as a major gap, a major need, for museums across the country.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Typically professional fundraisers come in to the non-profit world for major capital infrastructure projects, which is what you're talking about. We don't see that very much in smaller infrastructure projects. Usually the local community does that kind of work itself. It's often led by the board.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're puzzled by it as well. We don't know what to attribute it to. We can speculate, but we don't have any good information on it. It might be a question to pose to....

Canadian Heritage committee  Compelling programming brings people in. It's just one of the many challenges that museums have. Their programming and their relationship with the community drives membership.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think so too. It sounds familiar, but we fund so many that I don't have....

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not quite sure what he means when he talks about difficulty applying for a blockbuster. The access component under the museums assistance program provides funding for the development of exhibits, if they want to develop one. If they want to bring something in, we provide up to $15,000 for museums across the country to help them with the financing costs or the travel costs.

Canadian Heritage committee  In addition to the programs we have, the museums assistance program being the main one, we also have infrastructure support, and those museums would be eligible for infrastructure. They would also be eligible.... You mentioned Young Canada Works. We also have something called the “strategic initiatives” component of the Canada Cultural Investment Fund.

Canadian Heritage committee  Not under any of our programs.... There is a program called building communities through arts and heritage, to which museums and educational institutions can apply for very specific celebratory activities and so on. In many of our programs, you can have partners of all kinds of different types, but it is the museum, the heritage institution, that is the eligible applicant.