Veterans Affairs committee  I think Mr. Griffis and I both do, but Mr. Whitham does not, so there are just two of us.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee for this opportunity to comment on Bill C-473. We're pleased to do so on behalf of the Canadian War Museum and are greatly honoured to be here before the committee today. We certainly appreciate the bill's underlying spirit

Veterans Affairs committee  The answer is that $240,000 was the auction price. That does not include the administrative fees, but $240,000 was what we call the “hammer price”. You're speaking about the Robert Shankland medal that we purchased last year, I think.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't comment directly on that, sir. I would simply reiterate that because we don't know what the impact of the bill might be on the collections, practices, or requirements of the museum, we certainly don't have funds set aside for those purchases at this time.

Veterans Affairs committee  It could theoretically, yes.

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 cu

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 p

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 histo

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

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 t

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, a

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Vincent.