:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm just looking at the clock and I'm more than glad to stay an extra five minutes. I'm sorry I was a little late. I just have to make it to the House for House duty at 10 o'clock, so I'll extend this by five minutes. That's only fair.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I'd like to start by congratulating you, Chair, for your new assignment and your election as chair of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. I know you'll do a great job.
To the members of the committee who were on this committee in the previous Parliament, congratulations on your reappointment.
New members, welcome to one of the best committees of Parliament, which studies things that are important to all Canadians, particularly with regard to culture and national unity, subjects that are important to all Canadians.
[Translation]
By examining important issues in our society, this committee gives Canadians of all backgrounds the opportunity to be heard and helps us ministers and members of Parliament do a better job. I hope, as the session of Parliament begins, to establish a productive working relationship with you.
Today, I would like to talk to you about our government's plans and preparations for celebrating several anniversaries that will lead up to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017. I am joined here today by Daniel Jean, Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, and a few officials who will be happy to answer your questions afterwards.
[English]
Let me begin by saying that obviously celebrations and anniversaries of the scale of a 150th don't often come around for countries around the world. Indeed, our government believes this is a milestone that should be acknowledged and celebrated in a big way all across this country.
Some of you will have personal memories of the celebrations of 1967, which obviously brought to Canada a great sense of pride in our history. I believe that the landmark event that is Canada's 150th birthday is even more worthy of meaningful celebrations and lasting memories. That is why I'm very pleased that this committee has taken it on as one of its first areas of consideration in this new Parliament.
The year should be an occasion for reflecting on what we have achieved as a relatively young country, and it should be an opportunity to promote a strong sense of pride and belonging for all Canadians. Past events have demonstrated Canadians' enthusiasm for getting involved in large-scale celebrations of national significance.
The 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City was celebrated across the country, and Canadians gained a deeper insight into our country's origins and the importance of this great Canadian city.
More recently, we saw patriotism reach an all-time high as we got behind our athletes who revelled in the success of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on the west coast.
Also, the three royal visits over the past two years have also united Canadians from coast to coast to coast in embracing our past and expressing our hopes for this important institution in the future.
These celebrations allowed people across the country and visitors from around the world to discover Canada and its history, landscape, and culture, our artists, our communities, and our official languages. They gave us an opportunity as Canadians to express our deep pride and strength across the country.
Canada's 150th has the potential to be an even greater celebration than what we've seen, in every respect, because it will in fact involve all Canadians from all communities of all sizes in projects and celebrations of every description that will not only honour our past, but also inspire a bright future.
[Translation]
Our government understands the importance of the history of the symbols of heritage, and the values that unite Canadians as a great nation. The Speech from the Throne states it quite clearly:
Canadians are united by core values, a shared history, and a sense of common purpose. Our government will join Canadians in celebrating our heritage, in promoting our values, and in standing for what is right on the world stage.
In the next few years, Canada will celebrate some incredible milestones. And they will all culminate in Canada's 150th birthday in 2017. This anniversary represents an opportunity to celebrate major events that have shaped our history and contributed to our national identity.
[English]
Clearly, however, the most important thing for us to continue to tackle is to continue to work together to have this committee stir up ideas, to bring witnesses before this committee who have great ideas on how Parliament can contribute to a national dialogue on how we move forward. There will be commemorations that will take place over the next few years that will allow us to build momentum toward our 150th anniversary and we'll be chipping in and supporting them across the country.
Common themes that will tie these milestones together include: responsible government, democracy, and freedom; strong symbols and solid institutions; rights and duties of citizenship, a shared commitment to fellow citizens and the rule of law; our veterans, a proud military history rooted in sacrifice and service to our country; and ourselves as everyday Canadians who make contributions every day in every way to the evolution of our country.
[Translation]
The anniversaries that will serve as signposts along the way to 2017 will remind us of the important events, key battles, significant people, and major accomplishments that shaped our great country and our identity. Our government will highlight these anniversaries to strengthen national identity and help build a shared understanding of Canadian history.
As you know, just last week, I announced our government's plans for commemorating the most imminent—and one of the most significant—anniversaries: the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the War of 1812. The war was a defining event in Canada's history. Without the War of 1812, Canada as we know it would not exist. Without the War of 1812, the French fact in our country would not exist as it does today. Without the War of 1812, the identity of our aboriginal population would have been fundamentally changed. The War of 1812 paved the way for Confederation, and it was instrumental in the creation of the Canadian military. Those who fought for Canada are Canadian heroes. People like Sir Isaac Brock, Charles-Michel de Salaberry, Tecumseh, and Laura Secord. The War of 1812 was the fight for Canada, and commemorating the war is important.
[English]
That's why over the next three years our government will be investing significant funds to increase Canadians' awareness of this defining event in our history. These funds will go to pan-Canadian educational campaigns, including a national documentary, a travelling museum exhibit, and the naming of October as the official month of commemoration of the War of 1812, as well as upgrading over 40 historic sites and supporting 100 local events, festivals, and re-enactments across the country.
As well, we're going to have a permanent memorial in Ottawa for the War of 1812 to honour Canadian heroes, and we're going to have recognition of our Canadian Forces regiments in 1812 ceremonies.
We will encourage Canadians to mark other key anniversaries in the next few years as well, so we can learn more about our history and our accomplishments.
Next year, we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne--her diamond jubilee.
In the coming years, we will also remember the participation of Canadians in the First and Second World Wars, the creation of several Canadian regiments, and major battles that have punctuated Canadian military history.
[Translation]
We will mark the birthdays of such architects of our country and of Confederation as Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier. We will commemorate key events that allowed our ancestors to lay the foundations of our country, such as the Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences and the establishment of the first responsible government in Canada. And we will celebrate great achievements that have changed the face of our country and our society, like the establishment of a colony near Red River, the Canadian Arctic expedition, granting women's right to vote, and adopting our national flag.
Other upcoming anniversaries that have marked our history include the 100th anniversary of the Grey Cup, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 100th anniversary of the NHL, and the 25th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In 2017, all these celebrations will culminate in the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
[English]
Our government wants the 150th celebrations in 2017 to inspire just as much pride and national sense of identity and belonging as the centennial celebrations in 1967 and Vancouver 2010 put together. We want them to leave a lasting memory in the minds and hearts of all Canadians. That's why this committee's undertaking of the study to bring forward ideas and Canadians who have thoughts and considerations on how we might best do this is very important.
I want to underline our government's commitment to our throne speech commitment to unite Canadians from coast to coast in this moment of national celebration. I think it's a great way to start this committee's consideration of events related to Canada's heritage by working on an issue that is I think beyond partisanship but is something in which all Canadians will be more than anxious to take part for the benefit of Canada's future.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Excuse my sore throat.
:
Thank you for the question.
Well, there are two things. I mentioned it in my speech, but it really needs to be underlined because I know there were a couple—not many—of editorials that brought doubt to the purpose of our celebration and commemoration of the War of 1812.
There are very few moments pre-Confederation, pre-1867, that are pan-Canadian in consequence. and that in my judgment Canadians really have not been taught about in our classrooms. Did you know that, sadly, in only three of Canada's ten provinces is it mandatory to take a history class in order to graduate from high school? The three are Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Even that history is a bit shaky in terms of how one might think of a history class.
Very few Canadians really are taught about the importance of the War of 1812. I think that as a foundational moment going into 1867, it seemed only appropriate to talk about the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 as we head into 2017, so we highlighted that.
There are core aspects of the War of 1812 that I think are not well enough understood and that we hope will just.... The things I'm about to say I hope just trip off the tongue when Canadians are asked why the War of 1812 matters. It matters because it defined Canada's territorial integrity and our independence from the United States. The War of 1812 was important because without the War of 1812 the French fact is not protected in North America. Without the War of 1812, aboriginal Canadians would have probably suffered the same future as the American Indians did. So without the War of 1812, you don't get the defining moment of Canada's territorial and political integrity, where we're independent from the United States, independent from Europe, and set on a course toward Confederation in 1867. It is a seminal moment in the development of Canada and not very many Canadians, especially young Canadians, are taught that in school. I think that's a shame.
:
So far there has been unanimity of energy and commitment by all of our institutions and crown corporations related to the Department of Canadian Heritage on projects related to Canada 2017.
For the people who we appoint to the boards of our national museums, to the CBC, to Library and Archives Canada, and to all these institutions, we generally look for people who are really forward-leaning, who are really enthusiastic about film, if we're appointing to Telefilm or the NFB, or who are really enthusiastic about the pan-Canadian infrastructure that is the CBC for disseminating Canadian information to Canadians. We try to appoint people who are thoughtful, who think outside of the box, who bring new ideas to the table, who challenge the status quo, and who come up with thoughtful entrepreneurial ideas on how to spread things.
For example, this year is the CBC's 75th anniversary. They produced and showed a phenomenal show on John A. Macdonald that was I think almost unanimously critically acclaimed for its quality. They've engaged in this process. They're looking forward to 2017.
Our national museums are planning travelling exhibits and staging them out. I know that the War Museum, the Museum of Civilization, and the National Gallery all have different travelling exhibits they're preparing, from now through 2017. They are very forward-leaning and hopeful about what they can accomplish.
I think everybody's using 2017 as a moment to cantilever on all kinds of really great programs. I think we'll get Canada's collections, our history, our art, and our incredible diversity of educational materials all across the country. Partnerships with local and regional museums are something that everybody is looking forward to.
I can say in full sincerity that I have nothing but good things to say about Canada's partners and the way in which they are really enthusiastically tackling 2017.
By the way, it's refreshing to have a proud Canadian patriot on the opposition benches, as opposed to what we've seen over the past decade, and congratulations on your appointment.
The answer is yes, but all these things have to be done in partnership, and I think it worked very well in the 400th anniversary of Quebec City.
Certainly, the last thing Quebeckers want—or any Canadian wants—is the federal government and a heritage minister who is from Vancouver going into Montreal to say, “Here's how we envision things”. It's not how you do it. It's not respectful. It's not the right way to do it, so we work in partnership.
The City of Montreal, which is really one of the cultural capitals of the planet, obviously is going to have a very ambitious, very large, and very exciting program. I'm sure you know that Montreal is home to the largest comedy festival in the world, the largest jazz festival in the world, and the second-largest—they argue the largest, but I think it's the second-largest—St. Patrick's Day on the planet.
Montreal does everything big, and they do it very well, I think, certainly on the cultural side. I'm looking forward to working with the mayor. I know you're the heritage critic for the opposition, but you come from Montreal, so working with you on specific projects will add a pan-Canadian scope to Canada's second-largest city but will also be respectful of the fact that this is a Montreal celebration as much as it is a Canadian one.
:
It could. The rescuing of physical material would usually fall under Parks Canada. At Heritage...if they uncover something and they want to have an event to commemorate their finding something and to draw people's attention to it, we can fund that. I'm thinking about infrastructure in general.
We also have the cultural spaces fund, which is physical infrastructure. That's $30 million per year across the country and that's not a lot of money when you think about the size of Canada. It's $30 million per year for physical infrastructure. The average grant that comes out of that is about $150,000 per year, and that usually goes to things like fire suppression equipment, new seats in theatres, or new stained glass windows. If they find something physical importance that they want to incorporate into a new infrastructure component of a facility, then that's something we could fund.
It can't come from a member of Parliament, but if an organization wants to apply for funding for a physical infrastructure improvement of cultural significance, you'd do it through the cultural spaces fund. I always tell people—this is for all members—that if somebody has a project like that, don't design your project. Make an application and hope for the best. Get rejected, get frustrated, come back, and then go through this endless process.
We have regional offices at the Department of Canadian Heritage. I always tell people to sit down with the department and the bureaucracy first. This is where members of Parliament have a role. If somebody has an idea, they'll come to you. You can come to me and we'll get a regional person from the Department of Canadian Heritage to sit down with the proponent that has this kind of project, and we design the project so that it fits the criteria of the program. This way, we can get rid of the back-and-forth, which only frustrates local and small organizations that are volunteer organizations.
These organizations--where the president is also the treasurer is also the accountant and is also the acting lawyer--don't have the capacity for all of this stress and paperwork. Sit down with us, if you have these organizations for the Lachine Canal or others sit down with you, and sit down with the Department of Canadian Heritage. Find a project. Make it fit the program and move forward. That's far more efficient and has a much higher success rate.
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The physical infrastructure part is hard. You're right: I think if you ask most people for a quick response about the legacy of 1967, they'll point to the physical infrastructure. You can't go very far in this country without finding a centennial arena, a centennial park, a centennial bridge, a centennial waterfront, etc. They're now 50 years old. Of course, as you can appreciate, many of these were built in a rush to meet the deadline of 1967, as infrastructure projects are often put on the clock.
So a lot of those pieces of infrastructure are in tough shape, which is part of why we had the RInC program. It was part of the targeting of our stimulus infrastructure money in the economic action plan. We are doing a reassessment of all those projects. It wouldn't exactly be a great 150th celebration to have the infrastructure from the 100th celebration falling apart. We want to do a full assessment of how these arenas are doing and what part the government can take in that.
I think it's important for all communities and all members of Parliament to look around your districts, look around your riding--you mentioned the hall in your riding--and find projects that were funded as part of the centennial to see whether or not they could qualify for things like I just described to Tyrone, such as the infrastructure upgrades to upgrade things and to keep them seismically safe and the fire-suppression equipment and so on. We are looking at that.
As you know, technology comes, technology goes. A lot of cultural legacy things.... For example, to go back to the War of 1812, in 1998, if memory serves, we had a four-part series on the war of 1812. Obviously the story still holds up and the production value still holds up,but most copies of that movie are in 4:3 aspect ratio, not widescreen. So it's actually difficult to get that film to make sense on most people's televisions now. I think that for a lot of people, when they're watching their TVs and bring up a show that's in 4:3, they instantly think it's outdated. That's a small way of answering....
Yes, we want to invest in cultural events and legacy projects like films and documentaries that are important to Canadians,but whether or not they'll have saliency 50 years after this is hard to say.
:
Maybe I'll answer it this way. My responsibility as Minister of Canadian Heritage isn't to say “here's what Canada is” and jam it down your throat, or “unless you share our narrative, you won't get funding”. That's not how we do things.
“I am a Canadian because...”. That sentence gets ended in very different ways in different parts of this country. Daniel Jean is a francophone. I'm an anglophone from the west coast of British Columbia, so it means a very different thing to me. I'm Irish, Scottish, English, and German, and I speak both official languages. I have a different perspective of things, a different lens.
Other Canadians have a very different experience. Some people come from very tragic circumstances. They're first-generation Canadian and they come here and they're making a go of it and they have a great thing to celebrate. Some people come here from other parts of the world full of hope and aspiration, and their experience, linguistically and culturally, is very different from mine; it could be completely foreign to me in many ways.
The sentence “I am proud to be Canadian because...” gets finished in different ways, and people should have a full sense of their own identity within Canada. I think that's important.
That said, we do have things we believe in and that we identify with collectively as Canadians. We do believe in democracy, in human rights, in institutions. It's a balancing act, but people balance it in their own ways.
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On the Sir John A. Macdonald program and the CBC, there's more of a barrier between me and the CBC than members of Parliament and the CBC, you should know, because they're a crown corporation for which I am responsible. We provide funding oversight. I'm responsible for the Broadcasting Act that governs the CBC, but they're not a government broadcaster. I don't pick up the phone and tell them what they should show and what they should show less. That's for the board and Canadians to talk about.
Speaking as a Canadian, not as the Minister of Heritage, I agree with you that the program on Sir John A. Macdonald was fantastic. I actually think that Canadians are calling the CBC to say they'd like to see more and to learn more about their founders and the great moments in Canadian history. We need more of these dramatizations that are rooted in fact.
If anybody agrees with that sentiment, I encourage you to write to Hubert Lacroix, the board at the CBC, and Kirstine Stewart in English programming--they're still doing a job search for the head of French language programming at CBC--and encourage them to do more.
The second part of your question was on why it is important. Not to be too political, but the Bloc Québécois was defeated in the last election campaign. But they weren't wiped out. There's still a large number of Canadians who don't fully feel part of the Canadian family, and I think we need to do better than that. I think one of the reasons is that we don't teach history; we don't teach a pan-Canadian narrative of Canadian history.
I think we very often identify ourselves with our community. Only because it's obvious, and we've just talked about it, is the War of 1812. When you go to Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort George—it's a city of 25,000 or so people in Niagara-on-the-Lake.... Fort George has 15,000 school kids going through it every year. This coming year that will double as a consequence of the 200th anniversary. Niagara-on-the-Lake people very much understand Queenston Heights, Sir Isaac Brock, Fort George, what mattered, and what happened. But as soon as you get beyond there, people don't know, and I find that's true not just of the War of 1812, but across the country.
People know their local history very well. I know about Captain Vancouver and what happened in Port Moody. I can tell you to a T what happened in my hometown, but I couldn't say the same thing about Gander. I know about Cupids because we celebrated that, but I couldn't tell you about the pre-history of Gananoque. We need to do a better job of that.
We are working on proposals on Canadian history that will be very ambitious about teaching Canada's history. I'll have more to say on that in the future.
:
The big take-away is that everybody knew Canadians would rally around the athletes if hockey both for men and for women went the way it did: seven games against the Americans--growl--Sidney Crosby scoring the goal, and overtime. We all knew the Canadians would just rise up, jersey sales would go through the roof, and it would be an historic moment.
To be honest, the biggest surprise for me--which shouldn't have been a surprise--was the Cultural Olympiad, which included the torch relay and cost so little money. People have almost as much memory about the torch relay coming through their town as they do about the athletic components of the game. Everybody remembers when the torch came through. It came through my riding at the crack of dawn. It was actually ridiculous because it was dark, but there were school kids lined up at five in the morning by the side of the road in a dumping, awful Vancouver rain in January. I was standing there with them. They had their little red mitts and frozen cheeks and they were waving at the torch going by. They loved it. All those kids will remember it.
On top of that, we had the Place de la Francophonie, which was a $7-million investment by the Government of Canada over the course of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to have a French quarter during the games. As you know, bilingualism was a big part of the debate in the Olympics.
When I went to the Place de la Francophonie it was full every single night, and 80% of the people were anglophones, standing there and cheering, loving Roch Voisine, Stéphanie Lapointe, and all the great Quebec artists who were there. They were anglophones seeing French Canadian music for the first time, with Quebeckers standing up there with their brilliant talent, just strumming amazing songs. English Canadians were saying that it was unbelievable, that they had heard that on the radio out here. “Damn”, they said, “we have some pretty impressive people in this country”.
That surprised me, as did the Cultural Olympiad across the board, which cost so little money. You would go to a hockey game or the curling rink, come out and have dinner, and then want to do something to keep the party going. People had the opportunity to see Jim Cuddy, Dallas Green, and all these great groups: Canadian talent in a Canadian venue in a Canadian city before a world audience. It was absolutely the icing on the cake, and the smallest amount of money we spent on the Olympics was for the Cultural Olympiad. Everybody can tell you about a sport they saw, the torch relay, and the brilliant Canadian artists they had the opportunity to see for the first time.
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Does Rodney Weston want to answer that question?
Voices: Oh, oh!
Hon. James Moore: Yes, moments like this, where we actually can get Canadians.... By the way, a member of Parliament from Brampton asking about the Bay of Fundy is a good thing. People talking about Canadian history and culture beyond their regions, and understanding and promoting that is a good thing, because it only unites the country.
I used to say this all the time...I don't know if it's true anymore, but it used to be true about 10 or 15 years ago when I gave the speech. It used to be true in Quebec that the younger the population, the higher the proportion of people who identified with the Bloc Québécois or the separatist movement. I always thought to myself that it was such a shame, because if anybody actually had the opportunity to visit across the country, if they looked out over the Chilcotin plateau at dawn or dusk, if they got to go to Gander, if they saw Cape Spear, if they visited downtown Toronto, and if they ate in a restaurant in Edmonton, they would understand the diversity of this country and they would say: “What are we talking about? Why in the world would anybody consider leaving the greatest country in the world?”
People don't have the resources to visit and travel this country as we members of Parliament do. It's a great privilege, by the way, as a member of Parliament, to get to understand and visit this country the way we do. So few Canadians have that benefit. Therefore, in turn, it comes to us as a responsibility to use institutions and the tools at our disposal as a government to make sure Canadians understand these things.
People should know about the Bay of Fundy and the tides, what they mean and have meant, and how gorgeous it is there, and they should be able to point it out on a map and talk about it. I think that's a good thing. I think this is something I'm going to be talking about more, certainly as we go to 2017, but also at the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of culture meetings coming up, and, going forward, to encourage them to adopt a more robust plan with regard to teaching history. It has to happen for the good of the country.
Not to be a political analyst, there's one thing that does concern me a little. People look at the House of Commons and say, “Oh well, the Bloc Québécois is down to four seats in the House, so I guess we don't have to worry about that.” Well no, these debates are cyclical. I think Canadians become alienated from one another when we become lazy about being proud of being Canadians, being proud of our institutions and regions, and talking about them to each other.
I don't think the political expression of May 2 can be taken as an expression of full success in defeating anybody's appetite for more regional politics or regional divisions. I think we should take this as a window of opportunity over the coming four years to take things like 2017 and breathe a new energy into patriotism across the country, to really seize the moment. This is how I would see it.
:
All members of Parliament will be involved in this as well. Hold on a second. I have to ask....
Okay. We are giving out diamond jubilee medals. I had to ask because I couldn't remember if we had already announced that or not--
Voices: Oh, oh!
Hon. James Moore: We have. Okay. There we are.
Many of you will remember that in the second year of Jean Chrétien's last term it was the golden jubilee of Her Majesty, her 50th anniversary as the Queen of Canada. Sheila Copps, then the heritage minister, and Jean Chrétien had a golden jubilee medal program. It was largely a success. We are going to revisit that, but we're actually, I think, improving on it.
As is always the case, there were just unforeseen challenges and problems with the golden jubilee program, which was overwhelmingly a success, but we've tweaked, upgraded, and fixed this. I think it'll be embraced by all members of Parliament going forward. The diamond jubilee is a very big part of our calendar in the next year in terms of identifying institutions that are important to Canada's past, present, and future. Members of Parliament will be involved in this. Those of you here who were members of Parliament in 2002, although I don't think there are many, actually--I think I'm the only one--will note that it was a great program.
As for what it is, basically, each of us as a member of Parliament is allocated a number of medals to give to Canadians of accomplishment in our districts. It will be a way for members of Parliament to draw up Canadians of great achievement who live in their districts and to highlight them and their accomplishments for your community and, by extension, for all Canadians.
The diamond jubilee program is quite broad in its scope. I'll have even more to say on it very soon. It will involve all members of Parliament of all parties in a very non-partisan way, as a way of celebrating the diamond jubilee and also making sure that Canadians have an opportunity to know other Canadians who have achieved great things for their community.