26 November 2014

Minister Addresses Auditor General Report on LAC

On Tuesday afternoon Heritage Minister Shelly Glover appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in their deliberations on Supplementary Estimates, the first meeting of the committee since the summer break.
With the critical report by the Auditor General on Library and Archives Canada having been released in the morning NDP and Liberal committee members took the opportunity to grill the Minister who said what had happened at LAC before under Daniel Caron was unacceptable. In response to questions from Stéphane Dion the Minister said they had known LAC was in trouble for "a long while" which is why they moved to replace Caron. Asked why large budget cuts were made at LAC the Minister responded it was part of the action necessary across government to meet the economic situation. She did not explain why the ax fell so heavily on LAC when other activities in the Heritage portfolio were protected and even given increased funding.
Officials from Canadian Heritage when asked about LAC matters answered questions to the best of their understanding but made the point that while LAC is part of the Minister's Heritage portfolio, it does not report to the Department of Canadian Heritage. That's the official situation but may not be as true in practice, especially regarding budget.
Find an audio file, and eventually a transcript of the meeting, here.

2 comments:

  1. The "bottom line" on this ongoing travesty is that ca $25M was in effect transferred from the LAC budget to that of the now Canadian Museum of History, in fulfillment and cultivation of PM Heavin' Stupor's vision of Canadian "history".

    BABKanata

    ReplyDelete