Canadian Heritage committee  They're going to turn on my microphone.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. It is my great pleasure to be here with you all today to talk about a very important subject: the role of museums and Canadian heritage, and especially the role of community museums. I thank you all for this opportunity. It's the first time that I'm making

Canadian Heritage committee  Good. I think that having a museum policy is very very important, and I would hope that that could be a recommendation and an outcome of your work together. Funding at the federal level is episodic, and as a result the logical place of entry into the museum world as a professiona

Canadian Heritage committee  I hope I'm on time.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a great question. Let me say that it's always been a fundamental philosophy we have had that large learn from small, and small learn from large. I would say that above all, in Quebec, your smaller institutions are incredibly creative and have much to teach the world. There

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much for that very kind comment. I used to say to my late husband that is the town doesn't have a pulp mill, we couldn't work there because we did not start in the big cities. We started it in small communities all across Canada. I'd just like you to know that fro

Canadian Heritage committee  It's not you? Oh. Okay. I think that bill, whoever is sponsoring it, should be supported. I was misinformed, but that also happens in our country and everywhere else. I think repatriation, to the point that Eva Aariak is making, is really very foundational; and I think repatriat

Canadian Heritage committee  I think government in Canada primes the pump, so government has to offer some funding that will attract the private sector to match those funds. Government funding by itself is not the answer. Endowment is partially an answer, but, again, that money has to be both public and priv

Canadian Heritage committee  We're a very big country with a very small population scattered across this big country. That's true of the north, but really it's true of everywhere in this country. When you get into the issue of are there too many museums, I hate to say it's a little bit like saying are there

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. The first point is that we actually have a book that started with national museums, which explains in detail how to plan a museum. I'm going to send Eva Aariak a book. They can look at it. It's 800 pages long. Anyway, it's used all over the world. Let's do t

Canadian Heritage committee  Many, many thanks for your questions. It is a challenge. I keep stressing the need for federal policy. Our competitors in the U.K. or in France or anywhere in the world—the United States, although the United States less so—particularly in the U.K., set a high bar for what they e

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a great question, and it varies somewhat by community. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all ratio. I can say, though, that the most inefficient way of raising money is through admission charges. Admission charges are costly to administer. They only bring in 10% to 12%

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, of course.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, there is a general model. The general model is one-third earned, and that's the category to earn money, so that's earning from a lot of things. Currently, the biggest way of earning money is through rental of space. You know we live in a world in which real estate is king, o

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay, one third earned, one third contributed, one third government, one third, one third, one third.