Disappointments Continue for Canada’s Museums

CCA Bul­letin 15/07

April 3, 2007

Just the facts

For over a year now the Cana­dian muse­ums sec­tor has been hop­ing that the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon. Bev Oda, would finally deliver a new national muse­ums pol­icy, which she sup­ported so heart­edly when she was the Con­ser­v­a­tive Party’s Her­itage critic while in opposition.

After the ini­tial dis­ap­point­ment of see­ing noth­ing reflected in the first May 2, 2006 fed­eral bud­get of the “new” Gov­ern­ment of Canada, the Cana­dian Muse­ums Asso­ci­a­tion (CMA) heard the new Her­itage Min­is­ter soften her pre­vi­ous sup­port for the pol­icy by telling the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage in June 2006 that the whole mat­ter had to be recon­sid­ered from scratch.  Faced with this, the CMA orga­nized a busy sum­mer full of mem­bers’ meet­ing with MPs in their own con­stituen­cies to edu­cate elected offi­cials on the impor­tance of finally address­ing long-standing and seri­ous prob­lems in the sector.

The muse­ums had an addi­tional cause for dis­con­tent when the bud­get of the Museum Assis­tance Pro­gram (MAP) was slashed as “inef­fi­cient” as part of the Sep­tem­ber 26 2006 $1 bil­lion real­lo­ca­tion exer­cise. This blow cre­ated a major back­lash all across the coun­try at the con­stituency level, a fact that appar­ently caused much sur­prise within our new government.

The CMA has con­tin­ued to work with the Min­is­ter and thought that chances were quite good that it would finally see signs of the long-awaited pol­icy in the 2007 fed­eral bud­get: wrong again, the bud­get sim­ply promis­ing $ 5 mil­lion each year for two years to pro­vide the muse­ums to hire stu­dents dur­ing the sum­mer period, an ini­tia­tive which many have described as stem­ming more from elec­toral pre­oc­cu­pa­tions than from an analy­sis of the muse­ums’ pri­or­ity needs.

The lat­est unpleas­ant sur­prise comes in the form of the Government’s Response to the Ninth report of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage, Study related to Cana­dian muse­ums, made pub­lic last week and in which Min­is­ter Oda defin­i­tively turns her back on the pol­icy that had been long-in-the-making and had gar­nered wide­spread sup­port, includ­ing from all polit­i­cal sides of the House.  Here are the most inter­est­ing pas­sages of Min­is­ter Oda’s response:

“The Government’s most sig­nif­i­cant respon­si­bil­ity with respect to the muse­ums sec­tor is the national col­lec­tions it holds in pub­lic trust for Cana­di­ans as set out in the Muse­ums Act.  The national muse­ums are the only muse­ums with explicit man­dates to pre­serve and present the her­itage of the entire coun­try.  They also are the only muse­ums that receive annual oper­at­ing sup­port from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment through Par­lia­men­tary appropriations. (…)

In 2006–2007, the Gov­ern­ment invested almost $225 mil­lion through Par­lia­men­tary appro­pri­a­tions for the national muse­ums. This is a major com­mit­ment to the preser­va­tion of our heritage.

The Gov­ern­ment also rec­og­nizes the impor­tant roles played by other muse­ums across the coun­try. The Muse­ums Assis­tance Pro­gram will con­tinue to fund Cana­dian museum projects and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple work­ing in muse­ums. Muse­ums are also eli­gi­ble for sev­eral other pro­grams and ser­vices within the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage includ­ing Cul­tural Spaces Canada, Cana­dian Cul­ture On Line, the Mov­able Cul­tural Prop­erty Grants Pro­gram, the Cana­dian Con­ser­va­tion Insti­tute, the Cana­dian Her­itage Infor­ma­tion Net­work, and the her­itage com­po­nent of the Cana­dian Arts and Her­itage Sus­tain­abil­ity Program.

In addi­tion to the direct invest­ment pro­vided through these pro­grams, Bud­get 2006 also made it more attrac­tive for tax­pay­ers to make dona­tions to char­i­ties by elim­i­nat­ing the cap­i­tal gains tax on dona­tions of pub­licly listed secu­ri­ties to reg­is­tered char­i­ties such as museums.

The Gov­ern­ment is work­ing with the Cana­dian Muse­ums Asso­ci­a­tion and its mem­bers to develop a renewed vision for the museum sec­tor that will bet­ter address today’s chal­lenges and real­i­ties. It must take account of the appro­pri­ate role for the Gov­ern­ment of Canada in rela­tion to the roles played by other lev­els of gov­ern­ment and the pri­vate sec­tor. Cana­di­ans want to know that their hard-earned tax dol­lars are being invested responsibly.”

The CCA notes this cul­tural pol­icy devel­op­ment with dis­may. Advo­cat­ing for a new fed­eral muse­ums pol­icy remains one of our top pri­or­i­ties and we con­tinue to sup­port the work of our col­leagues at the CMA on this impor­tant front.

Tell me more

As if this was not already enough to drive the museum com­mu­nity to despair, on March 22 2007 the Cana­dian Con­ser­va­tion Insti­tute (CCI) announced that it will shut down its Exhibit Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices (ETS), effec­tive April 1 2008.

A spe­cial unit of CCI, ETS has been serv­ing Cana­dian muse­ums since 1976. It pro­vides secure, reli­able, and envi­ron­men­tally con­trolled trans­porta­tion for fine art and arti­facts across Canada. ETS is housed in a 1400-m2 climate-controlled build­ing with an inside load­ing dock capa­ble of accom­mo­dat­ing five tractor-trailer units.

CCI states the shut down is due to oper­a­tional and admin­is­tra­tive rea­sons. In 2005, an inter­nal audit of CCI’s finan­cial and pro­cure­ment man­age­ment con­cluded that an employer/employee rela­tion­ship existed with the drivers/fine art han­dlers, such that they could no longer be hired on contract.

Once again, it is the smaller insti­tu­tions which will suf­fer most from this deci­sion which, accord­ing to many, it would be very easy and not overly costly for Min­is­ter Oda to resolve.