National Museums Saved
In the heritage sector, museums were certainly privileged by Minister Flaherty’s budget. Not only did we see the budget for national museums renewed without any cuts, but the government has reserved a beautiful tribute to all Canadian museums.
The government responded to the majority of the expectations of the national museums.
- Maintained the budgets of the national museums;
The national museums, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, The Canadian Museum of Nature, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum will share more than $200 million that remains untouched.
At the time of publication, the Canadian Heritage Minister still hadn’t announced the fate of specific programs that the Department funds through the Museums Assistance Program (MAP). It should be remembered that, “Through a series of spending cuts, the funding level of the Program was reduced from a target of $18 million per year to today’s allocation of $6 million.” [1]
2. Increased support for the Canada Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Program that will increase the limit from $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
In the case of this program, the government assumes financial liability and pays compensations when necessary in case of loss or damage to travelling exhibitions. This improvement also includes a change to the calculation period and an increase in the maximum level of support per exhibition, from $450 million to $600 million. The Executive Director of the Canadian Museum Association, John McAvity, said, “This is a remarkable increase in support that will allow Canadians to see valuable collections that they would normally not be able to view.”
3. Increased support for the Youth Employment Strategy by $50 million over 2 years.
The CMA has been administering part of the Young Canada Works program’s Careers in Heritage, which is part of the youth employment strategy, since 1996. So the wishes of the museum sector are being met.
What else could we hope for?
For years the museum sector has been demanding a national museum policy. In 2007, a year after announcing that Canada needed a new museum policy, Minister Bev Oda was closing the door completely on this proposal. The sector continues to hope for the establishment of some form of vision for museums. Indeed, it seems essential that an action plan for the management and preservation of Canadian heritage be in place. Would this not be a great project to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada?
[1] Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance for the pre-budget consultations by the Canadian Museum Association, Autumn 2011