Thank you for inviting me to appear before Committee this afternoon to discuss Budget 2012 and talk about other subjects for which Canadian Heritage is responsible.
You have already introduced my deputy minister and the director general of financial management.
1 am pleased to take this opportunity to update the committee on our accomplishments and priorities as we look ahead to the 150th anniversary of Confederation, for which programming begins with Budget 2012.
I would also like to thank the committee for its report on Canada's 150th anniversary, which we will continue to review over the coming weeks. I will be submitting my response to the report very shortly.
[English]
When I appeared before this committee in May, I outlined how budget 2012 maintained our government's support for arts and culture. That commitment remains firm, and, indeed, this year we have many accomplishments to be proud of. I know that all committee members, and this is true across all partisan lines, share a view that arts and culture are important generators of jobs and growth.
In challenging economic times, our government, in our two-year economic action plan, decided to make key investments in culture. Budget 2012 keeps those commitments moving forward. While other governments around the world and even in this country were making decisions to heavily cut their support for culture, our government chose a very different path. Our government is one of the few governments in the world that did not cut funding for arts and culture, that did not maintain funding for arts and culture, but made a deliberate decision to increase our support for arts and culture during the recession.
Contrast this with the decisions other governments are making around the world. In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts runs on less money now than it did 20 years ago. Many American states and cities have eliminated their cultural supports. Since the recession, Arts Council England has seen its funding cut by 30%. In Canada, we decided to increase funding for the Canada Council for the Arts by 20%, the largest funding increase for the Canada Council in decades, and Budget 2012 maintained that record level of support.
Our government also maintained our support for our national museums. While other countries in the world were cutting back on culture and even closing museums, we increased our funding to all our national museums. In fact, we created two new national museums, and we have a third on the way. We created the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax as a Government of Canada museum, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, and the Canadian museum of history in Gatineau, which I will get to shortly in more detail.
I think Canadians in all regions of our country are incredibly proud of our museums because, taken together, our national and local museums in communities all across Canada are some of the best in the world. We value our museums. They tell our stories. The collections that they house and the role that they play in our culture are invaluable. Because of this, in budget 2012 we continued our path of supporting our museums with continued stable funding.
As a matter of fact, on top of the funding that we've protected for our museums, we've doubled the Government of Canada's indemnification program from $1.5 billion to $3 billion every year. This is basically the Government of Canada stepping in to support financially the costs museums incur in housing international collections or moving collections around the country to build thematics.
I know that many of you, and perhaps all of you, met with representatives of the Canadian Museums Association this week. They were in town. This was their number one budget ask. We listened to their concerns, agreed with their top priority, and it is contained in the budget.
[Translation]
Our government stood up for arts and culture when it was needed most, for our economy and our cultural organizations. We understand this sector's importance to ensuring that our economy remains strong. We believe that supporting the arts is essential to supporting Canada's economy and our quality of life.
We know that governments in other countries have made decisions to cut — and in some cases cut heavily — their support for culture. Not us; not this government and not this prime minister. We chose a different path and we have stayed on that path, despite being in a period of economic uncertainty. As our path leads to 2017 and Canada's 150th birthday, we are firmly committed to celebrating our country's rich history and heritage. That is the priority I would like to focus on now.
This year, 2012, marks the beginning of the five-year countdown to our nation's 150th birthday. It offers us an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate the things that define us as Canadians.
[English]
It has already been a very eventful year, as many of you know. This year we are celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Coast Guard, Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, the 40th anniversary of Paul Henderson's goal in the 1972 Summit Series, 100th Grey Cup, which occurred last week, and yes, of course, the bicentennial of the War of 1812, as well as many more celebrations.
We will be celebrating many more milestones over the next five years, including: next year's 100th anniversary of the first Canadian Arctic expedition; in 2014, the 150th anniversaries of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences; the centennial of women's suffrage in Canada; and the 375th anniversary of the creation of the city of Montreal.
[Translation]
Anniversaries like these connect us. They define who we are as Canadians. They remind us that we have much to be proud of.
[English]
Canada's museums are going to play a key role in this undertaking. I've already outlined the importance our government places on national museums. We are the only government in the world, I repeat the only government in the world, that has created, during the recession, three new national museums while doubling funding for programs such as the Canada travelling exhibitions indemnification fund and the Canada cultural spaces fund.
Last month I was very proud to announce that our government plans to create the Canadian museum of history, le musée canadien de l'histoire. On Tuesday, we took the next step in creating this new museum by introducing Bill , the Canadian museum of history act.
This legislation would confirm the new name and mandate for the Canadian museum of history as well as the funding our government has committed in order to make this project a success. It would allow the museum to renovate over 50,000 square feet of its public space, roughly one-half of its permanent and temporary galleries.
The museum's new mandate is outlined in Bill . I'll quote the language of the legislation because it's important.
When we started this museum, there were some, perhaps at this table, who instinctively came out and criticized the government. But I would encourage you to look at this legislation. We can have plenty of arguments, disagreements, and debates, and that's fine. We can have disagreements on what the priorities should be, but this is an institution which we think will certainly serve the interests of all Canadians. In my view, it ought to be beyond partisanship. It could be certainly a source of debate.
This is the exact new mandate of the new Canadian museum of history that we've put forward in the legislation. I think you'll find it agreeable. It reads:
The purpose of the Canadian Museum of History is to enhance Canadians’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of events, experiences, people and objects that reflect and have shaped Canada’s history and identity, and also to enhance their awareness of world history and cultures.
We want this new national museum to truly reach across Canada as well and to connect together Canada's museums all across this country, as well with our historic places. For that reason, part of the funding we've put forward, this $25 million, will be used to create partnerships between the new Canadian museum of history and museums across Canada that have the same or similar mandate, but they'll do it on a local level.
As you know, the Canadian museum of history, currently the Museum of Civilization, is the largest museum in Canada. It has 80% or so of its collection currently in vaults. We want that collection to get out and move across the country—there are great Canadian stories to be told—so that local museums can have access to the vaults and to the collections that are in this museum and to house them locally.
We've doubled the indemnification program from $1.5 billion to $3 billion so that we can get these collections moving around the country to help local museums host these items that are currently in the national museum, to have them in their local museums so they can build local thematics and tell great Canadian stories with a local context. It will help local fundraising. It will breathe new life into local museums.
I think about the Port Moody Station Museum in my riding. It has a great collection. It's a really charming museum, but when you go there, you realize that everything on display has been on display there for about the last 25 years. If they had the opportunity to have access to the new Canadian museum of history's entire collection and to host things as they choose with assistance from the Government of Canada, it would allow them to rejuvenate and to re-energize their mandate and to offer new things to local museums and local audiences. I think this is a very good thing.
As official partners, these local museums will have access to that. There are three-and-a-half million items, by the way, that are in the holdings of the museum. These museums will have access to that. The local museums will also have the opportunity to work with other museums around the country to build thematics, share ideas on best practices, and build regional thematics that make sense for them. This will become the pan-Canadian infrastructure for all of our museums that we're all very proud of in all of our communities, to work together and to be a pan-Canadian infrastructure for telling Canada's stories one to another.
[Translation]
Canada's history is far from dead. It is all around us. It just needs to be told. It needs to be championed. It needs to be celebrated. I am determined to ensure Canada's story is told to Canadians as we travel on the road to 2017.
I would now be very happy to respond to any questions, whether about this specific subject or more generally about something of concern to you in relation to Budget 2012.
Thank you.
:
Thank you very much for the question, which obviously is a very good one. I'll be frank. This is a project that I've been working on for some time, actually since just after the last election campaign, so for about 18 months. I thought about it prior to that, and it's my initiative. When we launched the museum, we started talking to people about the idea of the museum. Any time there's change to anything—and we're talking about changing Canada's largest museum—there's always a little bit of hesitation.
When I outlined what it is we plan to do, how it is we plan to change the mandate, and the amount of the investment we were talking about, there was instant buy-in. I understand the nature of question period and politics and criticizing priorities and people saying we should do this instead of that. That's fine. That's the nature of democracy. It's not a big deal. However, I think on its own, this proposal has had the support of many, among them, Yves Fortier, who is a member of the Historica-Dominion board of directors, Michael Bliss, and John McAvity of the Canadian Museums Association. People all across the country have come out very enthusiastically and aggressively. It has the endorsement of all of Canada's major national daily newspapers which have all come out and supported this.
I frankly have encountered no opposition. The only opposition to this idea comes from those who would suggest that this money should be spent on other priorities. Again, that's fine. But I think, taken on its own, it's hard to imagine that this country ought not to have an institution that is equal in quality, value, reach, and mandate to the Smithsonian in the United States or the German Historical Museum in Germany or other institutions like those around the world.
Whenever I give speeches on culture, I often remind people that Canada is the second largest country in the world, but in terms of population, we're actually the 34th largest country in the world. We have a lot of divisions, and we know that in this country: east and west, north and south, French and English. There are all kinds of divisions that have always been a challenge in the governing of this country. I've always been a firm believer that these divisions can never be overcome unless we understand each other's individual and shared history.
That's what the opportunity from now until 2017 is all about. We have to have institutions that have a structure at arm's length from government, that are free from partisanship, and that are free from interference. The Museums Act guarantees that. But institutions can have those dialogues and have those debates, and that's what this is about.
Your question of cost is an important one, because we're talking about the budget. The $25 million that we're investing in this is a one-time investment from the Government of Canada. That $25 million is not being taken out of anybody else's pocket. As you all know, we have reduced the budget of the CBC. There is no CBC money going to this museum. This is separate money and is not from that. This is money that was earmarked back during our economic action plan towards events that would speak to Canada's priorities for 2017. This is not money that's coming from other people's pockets.
Mr. Jean, Mr. Hertzog and Mr. Moore, thank you for being with us. We are very pleased to have you here and be able to ask you some questions.
However, I would first like to tell you my reaction to the announcement about the museum. You have referred to our inconsistencies, in Parliament. But I am somewhat puzzled, because this museum and this announcement were clearly connected with Canada's 150th birthday. You said, simply, that when you were elected in 2011, you already had a vision for the museum. It was that, specifically, to which the opposition responded.
At this committee, we have spent 100 hours or so, talking about how we see Canada's 150th birthday. And then you came in with this proposal, which gave us the feeling we had spent 100 hours talking about something and not been heard.
You say you intend to respond to our report, and that is very good news. I am glad and I hope we will get more information about your idea of sending part of the permanent collection of the museum that was originally called the Canadian Museum of Civilization out to the other Canadian museums. We had in fact just considered the idea of announcing the good news in the report on the 150th anniversary.
Less than a half hour ago, we had a discussion in the House. You said we should do a study on Library and Archives Canada, and to that end we should ideally hear from its director and its employees. I would like it very much if we could address that subject at a meeting, which could be held in camera. Since it came directly from you and the subject was raised less than an hour ago, I think that would be useful.
You undoubtedly know that a number of organizations in the Canadian Heritage portfolio have not sent the parliamentary budget officer the breakdown of budget cuts and positions eliminated, although they were asked to do that.
Are you going to make sure that those institutions submit that information?
:
This is actually a very important issue, particularly for those in Winnepeg, but it does have pan-Canadian consequences because this museum is a really important one.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights process was started some years ago. It started under the previous Liberal government. Verbal agreements were made by Prime Minister Chrétien. Monetary commitments, and political commitments, for lack of a better word in the right sense, were made by Prime Minister Martin. We said that if we won the election in 2006, our government would honour those commitments and move forward with the museum, and we have done so.
When we decided to support the creation of this museum, it was a $100 million capital investment by the Government of Canada. At the time it was originally $20 million a year to operate it, I think. The money to operate it has now been increased to about $21.7 million, but the $100 million capital to build it has remained the same. The museum has encountered many challenges going forward on the cost of building it.
The original budget to build the building itself was $240 million and it's now $351 million. Many of those costs were, frankly, unforeseen, particularly the cost of steel. There were also some issues with the ground and the weight of the museum and architectural design. There were some challenges. It's one of those things that taxpayers get frustrated about very quickly. Unfortunately, it is what it is, but we have done our best to mitigate the costs. We have come up with a solution to this that maintains the budget of the Government of Canada and our commitment to the museum without putting new costs onto taxpayers.
The $100 million hard cash commitment to build the museum remains what it is. The $21.7 million per year cost to operate the museum remains what it is. What we have done, and this is reflected in the supplementary estimates, is to ensure the museum will open on time as planned, which is at the end of 2014, if memory serves. The original plan to have the museum open when it was planned to open will be maintained.
What we have done is we have taken the $21.7 million in operating costs, an annual cost that is part of the A-base funding of the Government of Canada—so it's simply another national museum with its annual cost—and we have taken its operating costs for the coming few years and we have cut them in half. We've taken the half of operating funding that was going to be in the coming five or six years and lumped it together into one sum and paid it forward, essentially. In the years going forward—the coming five years—its operating cash is going to be cut in half, but then it will spike back up once we get to the year when the advances are all paid.
We thought it was a responsible way to deal with an unforeseen challenge without putting new pressures on Canada's fiscal situation.
The museum will open on time with the mandate that Parliament has given it, with no new cost to taxpayers, and the museum can go forward. Again, this is a museum. It's a pretty remarkable financial success story. About two-thirds of the cost of building the $351-million building are not being borne by the Government of Canada, yet it's a Government of Canada museum. Most of those costs are being borne by the private sector, by those who believe passionately that Canada should have an institution that talks about human rights both at home and abroad. Support has come from the City of Winnepeg, and the Province of Manitoba. Other provinces as well have kicked in money for this. The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights have done a brilliant job of fundraising and making sure this is a success.
It's an important topic and I thank you for raising it because I know a lot of people, when it comes to the museum, the funding and what's going on, it's a pretty intense debate. In Winnepeg people have a clear understanding of what we've done and why, and it's been well received. The NDP provincial government has been great to work with on this project, as has Winnipeg's mayor and city hall.
I also know this is an issue that all Canadians want to see fixed and remedied to a successful outcome when it opens in two years, and I think we're there.
:
I agree with Scott Simms on this. I don't doubt there are going to be some difficult choices being made at CBC. I know them very well because we've been a part of those discussions about how they plan to move forward and fulfill their mandate. If you look at the cost of running the CBC 20 years ago versus the cost of operating the CBC today, it's a dramatically different universe. There used to be eight unions at the CBC, and now there are five. The unions have been great, I think. I am working with the management at CBC to find a way to protect the public broadcaster to fulfill its mandate while finding cost savings and doing so responsibly.
We give the example that's been trotted out again and again. We as politicians know you go to an event and you see Radio-Canada Television, a Radio Canada reporter, Radio Canada sound, CBC Television, CBC reporters. You see two or three vehicles roll up and they all go back to the same headquarters and file their stories. It seems odd. Those days are pretty much over. The way in which CBC has become streamlined has been really effective. As a result of challenging the CBC to be more responsible and more fiscally accountable, they've arrived at some very effective solutions.
On top of that, the CBC's embrace of digital media is quite outstanding. It's second to none among broadcasters in this country. If you look at 2.TV, the CBC television app, CBC music, and all the things they're doing to embrace digital platforms to maintain their younger audience, these are things to be applauded.
Many times it operates as a bit of a trial and error for the private sector broadcasters that want to see how much audiences are migrating to iPad apps to watch television and whether or not it's working. The CBC is operating as a bit of an experimental stream for television broadcasting to see if the numbers they have on traditional media are migrating onto digital platforms. They are looking at what can be learned by that, and other broadcasters are learning from them.
CBC is actually contributing to a better understanding of the digitization of media across all platforms, and everybody is learning from this. The way they're doing business is very good when it comes to digital media and approaching the challenges of reaching new and better audiences.
Broadly speaking, I'm Minister of Canadian Heritage but also Minister for Official Languages. I often make the argument that we need to remind ourselves that the CBC broadcasts in eight aboriginal languages in the north. They're the only broadcaster that operates in both official languages in every region of the country. If I'm away from Parliament for a while and I'm away from speaking French and I want to maintain my ability to communicate effectively in both languages, the only place to go is CBC. It's the only platform that exists in both languages, and it's important for that reason alone, for the sake of national unity and respecting our official languages.