Finance committee  Yes, it is, but I should put it in context with what has happened to the program over the years. That program was at $18 million a number of years ago, and it has been hit with program review cuts, chipped away at. In fact, if we added just the price of inflation to it, it should

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name's John McAvity. I'm the executive director. I have a handout, available in both English and French, that would supplement my comments. We're very pleased to be here today. Thank you very much for the invitation. As stated in our brie

Canadian Heritage committee  Good, we like that.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would help, but not the truly small museums. It would have to go down to a lower level.

Canadian Heritage committee  In part that's why we've called for a study to look at the needs of these new ones that are coming up, and over a number of years I think a reasonable projection can be made, so we're better informed about them. You asked if there were ways in which the playing field could perha

Canadian Heritage committee  The cost to administer, particularly with the new accountability regimes that have been coming into place, has been onerous. In museums it's quite frequently said that costs to apply and administer and be accountable are probably in the 25% to 35% range. I don't have any firm fig

Canadian Heritage committee  There are a couple of ideas. There is a small endowment-matching program right now, but museums are not eligible to participate in that. It is benefiting performing arts events and organizations. We're not in that. Basically, for every dollar, another dollar or so is matched. It

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a very good question. I don't have very firm answers for you on that, but I think a couple of things are paramount. We have to recognize that as time moves on, knowledge grows in our society. Libraries don't get smaller, they get bigger. It's the same thing. Museums are the

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, with respect to the latest changes that the Minister of Finance made on exempting capital gains for listed public stocks, not very many museums have benefited from that so far. Most likely some have, and they probably have done it where there have been major capital

Canadian Heritage committee  --and networks. It takes time, and for that reason, we think this public-private endowment, sort of the national United Way for museums, would have appeal.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the program is highly accountable and all of the applicants are highly accountable. I don't think, in the history of this program back to 1972, there has ever been found to be a case of abuse, fraud, theft, or anything like that. You're dealing with museums here, you know

Canadian Heritage committee  We fully support it. One of the suggestions there is that such an agency can receive funds from private individuals. In fact, the Canada Council was set up with two very large endowments, and since then there have been additional private funds that have been added to it. So you h

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. It was on October 30.

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't know how the decision to make the cuts was made, but I think we've been able to show that museums are very popular. In the latest report from Statistics Canada, attendance was up by four million people. Museums are central to our lives. So I think that message got throug

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we've been able to bring that issue forward and remind Canadians of that. It may not have been one of the five big priorities, but there were other promises made. Our strategy has been to focus on the need for new museum policy. We haven't been really focussing on the cut