On June 25, Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries (MHSTCI), presented for a second time to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, this time presenting on Culture and Heritage.”This ministry in all of its parts fuels a spectacular double bottom line – preserving and protecting – and in many ways evolving – our cultural fabric and social impact, while contributing $75 Billion toward the provincial economy.” She highlighted “the work that our artists, archeologists, archivists and athletes do in each community across Ontario create jobs and our sense of pride in people and of place” and stated that “these sectors include our community museums, our art galleries, [and] our public libraries.”
“We have a quality of life in Ontario that is the envy of the world,” she went on to say, “because we have world class organizations like The Thousand Islands Boat Museum in Gananoque, Fort Henry in Kingston, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, and the Art Gallery of Algoma in Sault Ste Marie.” Advocating for organizations such as these, Minister MacLeod stated, “my Ontario has libraries, museums and art galleries […] I want to make sure that in 18 months when we get through this crisis that our cultural and sport institutions don’t just survive – they thrive.”
