Canadian Heritage committee  If I may add, Mr. Chairman, because it's an interesting question--you talked about the collection growing and so on--one of the things we have been able to do over the past few years is distribute our collection to other places, such as Revelstoke, and we have equipment in New Br

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the federal government has a scale from zero to 100. In certain areas the federal government has assumed 100% of the costs of museums, which we outline here. That decision was made in the past, and you live with it. These numbers here are nothing compared to the numbers i

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, Lord Management is one of the top museum consultants in the world, a Toronto-based corporation that has expanded worldwide. We brought them in because we wanted to have the proper advice. I think what you're getting at is something that I also find strange, but in

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, but I'm just saying to you, you're asking where this comes from, and I'm not the expert who knows how museums work around the world, but certainly this is the advice we got from them. You're asking a question. We'd have to bring them in and ask them that question, but that s

Canadian Heritage committee  Sorry, but I think I can answer your question. Let me put it in general terms When this was made up, the experts said it was going to cost around $4 million a year in operating expenses to run it. How do we divide that up? We will generate approximately $1 million a year from th

Canadian Heritage committee  On the operating side, zero.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, 25%. And then the other three levels of government—municipal, provincial, and federal—throw in 25% each. That was the way it was conceived, and that's what you have here. It's $3.6 million divided by three, which is $1.2 million each. I'm giving you round figures here, but t

Canadian Heritage committee  Zero.

Canadian Heritage committee  I said “operating”.

Canadian Heritage committee  That depends on the year.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. We have a collections committee, which has been in place for many years. They go ahead and look at the existing items that are on the railways to identify which ones are worthy of being saved. That is written up and debated, and then a recommendation comes to our board. At t

Canadian Heritage committee  To answer the question, you need both. You can't just take an item and save it without having a building in which it can go, because the preservation and conservation includes the building, as you have to have it in a proper environment. So our concern is that the federal governm

Canadian Heritage committee  Our collection has been put together at basically no cost to us. We've been very fortunate that those in the railway industry not only supply the equipment, but move it for us at no charge and supply all the rail we require. They have been extremely generous over the 45-year peri

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it costs to bring them up to exhibit standards. We spent nearly $175,000 on the tramway that was mentioned. Year in and year out, the members put in nearly 14,000 hours. We have 125 volunteers who are working there, so that's on top of the money. That's also been very helpfu