[BCMA] Advocacy Update: Federal Pre-Budget Consultation

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

The BCMA and Yukon Historical and Museums Association have submitted a
letter for the Government of Canada’s 2021 pre-budget consultations. Our
joint letter outlines the critical need for ongoing COVID-19 relief for the
museum and heritage sectors and looks towards how museums can help build a
brighter future for all Canadians.

You can read an excerpt from our joint 2021 letter below, or visit our website
<http://museumsassn.bc.ca/advocacy-update-federal-pre-budget-consultation/>for
the full version. As the letter notes, Canada’s museum and heritage sector
stands at a critical crossroads and the BCMA is proud to work with our
Provincial and Territorial Museum Association partners across the country
to ensure that our sector’s voice is heard at a national level.

—

Dear Minister,

The British Columbia Museums Association (BCMA) and the Yukon Historical
and Museums Association (YHMA) are pleased to submit this letter to the
Government of Canada to be considered during its 2021 pre-budget
consultations. The BCMA and the YHMA support museums, galleries, and
cultural institutions across British Columbia and Yukon, respectively,
through networking, advocacy, and professional development.

Introduction: A critical crossroads for Canada’s heritage sector

Canada’s heritage sector stands at a critical crossroads, one that may
determine its very future and forever alter our country’s cultural
landscape. On one hand, calls for equity and social justice from Canadian
Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC) have confronted the
heritage sector with its legacy of colonialism and oppression, demanding
that museums, galleries, and cultural institutions create real, meaningful,
and lasting change. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched
Canada’s heritage sector to the point of breaking, decimating budgets,
cutting institutions off from their communities, and causing every single
cultural organization in the country to quickly pivot and innovate or risk
disappearing.

But with these crossroads comes the opportunity for a reinvention of
Canada’s cultural sector: becoming stronger, more diverse, and an essential
contributor to building a brighter future for all Canadians.

Through this letter, we hope to show the potential that our nation’s
museums, galleries, and cultural organizations can play in creating this
brighter future and we respectfully ask that funding for the heritage
sector is prioritized in the upcoming 2021 Federal Budget.

COVID-19’s Impact on the Heritage Sector: An existential threat

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immeasurable damage to Canada’s heritage
sector, the long-term effects of which may be catastrophic. Canada’s
heritage institutions hold items, artefacts, records, and specimens in the
public trust, housing more than 70 million objects, 113 million
photographs, 41 million scientific specimens, and 7.7 million linear meters
of textual records. In addition to these moveable objects, Canada’s
heritage sector cares for and preserves thousands of unique heritage
buildings and spaces across the country. A recent survey of cultural and
heritage institutions in British Columbia conducted by Heritage BC and the
BCMA found that nearly one in three (32.5%) organizations “may never fully
recover” from the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This result
is similar to surveys conducted in other provinces and in the United
States. While the United Nations found that COVID-19 may result in one in
eight museums closing worldwide, in North America the damage could be much
greater.

Because cultural and heritage organizations hold collections in the public
trust, the risk of wide-spread closures goes beyond the economic and social
impact of jobs lost, it is a threat to the very fabric of Canada’s
heritage. If one in three museums were forced to close, 21 million objects
would be at risk. With limited collections storage space across the
country, the heritage sector has little to no ability to safely re-house
even a fraction of these tens of millions of objects. This will undoubtedly
lead to irreplaceable pieces of Canada’s heritage being destroyed, lost, or
moved into private collections.

While this would be a tremendous loss for Canadians as a whole, the impact
would be truly devastating for Indigenous communities. Since before the
founding of Canada, Indigenous communities have had their culture,
heritage, and even the bodies of their ancestors stolen and moved into
museum, gallery, and university collections across the country. Many
Indigenous communities have spent decades researching and locating their
cultural patrimony and working to repatriate it back home. If tens of
millions of heritage objects are moved, let alone lost, due to the
widespread closure of museums, this would set back the repatriation work of
Indigenous communities by decades.

It is critical not only to ensure that these collections remain in the
public trust, but also that they are accessible to the public, in
accordance with best practices and protocols, through interpretation,
community engagement, research, and other activities. A continued reduction
in staffing in cultural and heritage institutions represents a significant
threat to accessibility, in addition to loss of livelihoods.

To avert these potential cultural disasters and to help save thousands of
jobs in heritage organizations across the country, we recommend that the
2021 Federal Budget includes sufficient funding to:
• Provide additional pandemic relief funding for the heritage sector until
more significant recovery has been achieved in Canada’s economy.
• Increase federal funding for the Museums Assistance Program (MAP) to at
least $60 million annually.
• Increase federal funding for repatriation of Indigenous cultural objects
and remains.

Supporting a More Inclusive Heritage Sector: Policies to promote Justice,
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

In the past year, there have been calls from traditionally marginalized
groups that Canada’s heritage sector must become more diverse and
inclusive. By supporting the creation of a new national museum policy, the
Federal Government can directly contribute to supporting justice, equity,
diversity, and inclusion in the heritage sector. Canada’s national museum
policy was last updated in the early 1990s. The renewal of this policy was
included in the 2019 mandate letter of the Minister of Canadian Heritage
and this work remains an essential part of strengthening Canada’s heritage
sector.

Canada needs a new national museum policy for two critical reasons. First,
the world has undeniably changed since the early 1990s. Second, a new
museum policy that establishes clear guidelines and expectations for the
repatriation of Indigenous cultural patrimony would be a significant step
forward in supporting reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The last iteration of the national museum policy is more than 30 years old
and neither reflects the innovative and transformative progress made by
heritage and cultural organizations in that time nor does it reflect the
diversity of Canada in the 21st Century. At the time the current policy was
drafted, only 0.4% of Canadians had internet access in their homes,
same-sex marriages were not legal in any province, and residential schools
were still open in Canada. Our nation has changed, and it is time that its
national museum policy reflects the changes made and supports the changes
that still need to come. A new federal policy is critical to informing a
long-term strategic vision for Canada’s heritage sector and this cannot be
accomplished with a 30-year-old policy….

*Ryan Hunt*
Executive Director
Pronouns: He/him To learn why pronouns are important, click here
<https://equity.ubc.ca/resources/gender-diversity/pronouns/>

The BC Museums Association Secretariat is located on the traditional lands
of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. We are grateful for the
opportunity to live and learn here in mutual respect and appreciation.

BC Museums Association || 675 Belleville Street  || Victoria, BC || V8W 9W2

Direct: 250-884-0499 || Office: 250-356-5700  || www.museumsassn.bc.ca
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