Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. We don't have an official relationship with the Assembly of First Nations, but we are on Blackfoot territory, and we have very strong relationships with, as I mentioned, Siksika, which is a first nation just outside Calgary. We also have both an aboriginal arts depa

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it was. Thank you very much, Mr. Gill. We thought it was very important that we would leave a legacy, and so to that end, artists from Calgary, San Francisco, Toronto, Regina, Halifax, Vancouver, New York, and the Siksika Nation, which is Blackfoot territory just outside of

Canadian Heritage committee  We publicized it through the various playwrights associations. Because of our 35 years of running the playwrights colony in Banff, we have partners right across the country. The playwrights have done a lot of work with places like the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and with the Play

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. I will start. Bringing people to Banff is a challenge, in many ways. They may come to Banff, but they don't necessarily come to the Banff festivals, because they're really coming to see the Rocky Mountains. It is a challenge. I think it's a really critical piece when peop

Canadian Heritage committee  I wanted to refer to Culture Days. Culture Days grew out of an idea. A number of arts organizations were involved, and we thought it was an important thing to do—to engage Canadians in the whole notion of how important culture is in our lives. We've had an extraordinary response—

Canadian Heritage committee  I certainly think commissioning is a very key way to do this. The Banff Centre has actually run something called the Banff playwrights colony for 38 years. We've had Canadian playwrights coming here and creating work for the past 38 years. In many ways, those plays already tell t

Canadian Heritage committee  I would support everything that has been said. The commissioning piece is really key. We certainly are doing more and more commissioning. We almost never do it alone. We are always working with partners. The content is really important, but I also want to go back to the notion t

Canadian Heritage committee  I can add to that. From our perspective in Banff, obviously one of the key things is that Banff is in fact in a rural Alberta constituency, and the fact is that there are only 7,800 people in this town, so we rely entirely on people from outside of Banff coming to see the work. T

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the committee today. As I've been introduced, I am the vice-president of programming for the Banff Centre. I thought I should begin with a bit of background about the Banff Centre. It began life as the Ba