FOREWORD

On the dawn of a new millennium, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertook the task some two years ago of studying the evolving role of the federal government in support of Canadian culture.

Because of the magnitude of the task, and of the issues involved, we decided to focus our work on three emerging challenges, crucial ones we felt, facing Canadian culture as we start another century. Indeed, the rapid pace of demographic change in our country, the exponential evolution of communication technologies, and the globalization of economies and trade, represent formidable issues to consider when setting policy protection, support, and enhancement, of our culture and cultural institutions.

So over the lengthy period of our study we met and heard a large number of citizens from all walks of Canadian life, whose common objective and conviction were both the maintenance and the flourishing of our cultural heritage, and its many means of expression. These individuals may have been experts or main participants in the cultural field, or community representatives and volunteers. If there was one bond linking their words and views, it was their passion and consistency in impressing upon us the value of culture as an essential part of their lives, and their identity as Canadians.

Yet, at the end of our long journey, we found out we were no wiser in defining culture and cultural identity than we had been at the outset. For it struck us ever more forcibly that culture expresses itself for and in people in many different ways and faces. Perhaps this is the magic of culture: that indefinable essence and quality which permeates each of our lives in one way or another, which lifts us beyond the routine and the mundane into another world of creativity, of beauty and of visual and aural fulfilment-which defies the senses. Indeed, it is difficult to translate the joy brought by a well-written and crafted novel, by a work of art, or the harmony and majesty of an excellent orchestra. Each one of us experiences that joy differently, yet all of us know that the music, the play or painting or novel opens us to another vista, to a loftier and more fulfilled sense of being.

The report which follows is of course imperfect. We found it hard to summarize and convey the feelings and ideas of the great many witnesses we met and heard. Some of the dissenting reports from colleagues of the opposition do translate that frustration. Yet I think the report is a valiant effort at expressing the important views transmitted to us at countless hearings and in countless briefs.

One of the key messages we received was the importance Canadians place in the role of their Government in the promotion, protection, and support of our culture and its federal cultural instruments and institutions.

Above all, what I firmly hope the report will convey, is the depth of feeling and the determination that Canadians have expressed to us in the defence of their cultural identity and heritage, no matter how difficult they, and we, may find it to describe the latter precisely.

To try and express as hopefully and faithfully as we could the depth of these feelings toward cultural identity and heritage, we chose to title our report: A Sense of Place - A Sense of Being. If this report, imperfect as it may be, can enhance our Sense of Place and Being in some positive way, then it will have served its purpose