Ontario Museum Association sends
letter to Minister Oda regarding delays in MAP and CAHSP notifications
July 21, 2006
"The Honourable Beverley Oda
Minister of Canadian Heritage
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister:
On behalf of our museum members, the Ontario Museum Association
(OMA) would like to bring to your attention the serious delays in
notification regarding the status of our members’ applications
to the Museums Assistance Program (MAP) and the Canadian Arts and
Heritage Sustainability Program (CAHSP) for this fiscal year.
As you know Minister Oda, responses to museums’ applications
are now seriously delayed and we want to express our concern that
much of the sector’s business and professional plans are now
under jeopardy while the museum community awaits notification of
their applications’ status. We are now months into your government’s
new fiscal year and many of our own members are well past the halfway
point in their own fiscal year. Applications for projects planned
and scheduled to begin during the last several months remain unanswered
while resources, human and material, as well as professional relationships
between private and public partners to support the sector, are being
jeopardized by the lack of a timely response from the Department
of Canadian Heritage.
The community is under much pressure to perform its mandate to
the service of Canadians, not only in our province but also across
the country. In order to be successful with business and professional
planning, to fulfill the expectations of our publics across Canada,
museums require their partnership in government investment to be
acknowledged. Replies to these applications are overdue and must
be provided promptly in order to avoid further project delays as
well as loss of opportunities for Canadians to benefit from the
multitude of services that museums are planning to bring to education,
tourism, community building, in short the economic and social vitality
of Canada.
We would also note that the very intents of the MAP and CAHSP programs,
important public investment programs for our sector, are being disregarded,
if not neglected, by not providing the museum community with responses
in a timely manner.
We thank you for your interest and consideration and look forward
to your reply which will be shared with all museums across Ontario.
The Association remains committed in supporting Canadian Heritage
in the adoption of a much-needed National Museum Policy. We thank
you again for this opportunity and look forward to ongoing dialogue
with you and your staff.
Sincerely, Ed Driedger, President "
The OMA will share Minister Oda's reply with the membership as
soon as it is received.
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