Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. Thank you, sir.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's an excellent question. It's an ongoing challenge. We have a small professional development budget or line, and we use every penny of it. On top of that, I sit on the Algonquin College museum studies programs advisory committee, and the committee for UNAM, the Mexican university.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, sir. I think I'm going to also let Alex answer this one, because it's—

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, it's about updating the museum policy. I don't have a specific answer, but we're not in the 1970s anymore, and with 21st-century challenges, museum policy has to incorporate youth engagement, multiculturalism, technology...and not just digitization. I stepped onto the dark side in my career and was a technical writer for Nortel Networks.

Canadian Heritage committee  Merci, and yes, absolutely. Being on a UNESCO world heritage site is.... First of all, Canada doesn't have many, and we need to celebrate being on one. It's also a national historic site. I think next year is the 75th anniversary of national historic sites in Canada. We're a national historic site and we're a UNESCO world heritage site.

Canadian Heritage committee  I concur. That assessment is spot-on correct. Forty-nine years ago, for the 100th anniversary of Canada, many communities wanted their own community museum. There was an incredible growth in the number of museums across Canada. You're absolutely right. One of the multiple issues now is the founder syndrome.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. It helps us to have benefit packages for staff, which we couldn't do on our own, as well as to have joint marketing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to answer in English. I'm sorry.

Canadian Heritage committee  We really do participate with the community. Apart from partnering with our colleague museums and community museums—of which there are a handful, and they are very good—we also partner with the businesses and the business improvement areas that sponsor us. The Downtown Rideau BIA sponsors our Winterlude ice sculpture.

Canadian Heritage committee  Beyond that is the grant-writing aspect. We're not arguing about writing grants; we're arguing about having that whole application process streamlined and coordinated with all three levels of government, because all three levels of government ask the same information, but in different forms.

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. Go ahead.

Canadian Heritage committee  On my nuts-and-bolts problems, I'm going back to something that I referred to about federal departments talking with each other and talking with community museums. My specific problem and huge challenge is NAC's construction, because I'm at the bottom of the hill. I haven't been able to get deliveries for a week.

Canadian Heritage committee  On that note, a resource for you is ICOM and ICOM Canada. The new president of ICOM Canada is Audrey Vermette. They are also doing a phenomenal amount of research on this issue and a number of other issues. I'll go back to Mr. O'Regan's question to my colleagues prior to this presentation.

Canadian Heritage committee  They have an incredibly deep tradition of museography and museology, which is quite distinct from European and Canadian and American. Their history is a little longer than ours.

Canadian Heritage committee  Their museography is distinct.