From: beaurega@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Denis Beauregard)
Subject: Re: Quebec Nationalist Writer sells manuscripts to Ottawa!
Organization: Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:15:25 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.134146.17824@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy) writes:
>From a Canadian Press report in the Globe and Mail, page D1, Nov. 17,
>1992:
[summary deleted]

>Note:  The constitutional position of the Quebec government is that the
>federal government (which spends 40% of its cultural spending in Quebec 
>though Quebec has only 25% of the population) should
>vacate the field of culture and allow the Quebec government should be
>allowed to be the sole protector of Quebecois culture...
>
>The irony is of course that Tremblay's papers would truly be "lost
>forever" if the Quebec government had its way...it wouldn't buy them,
>and if Canada accepted its constitutional demands, the federal
>government would have been unable to buy them also.  The Quebec
>government...the great protector of Quebecois culture...NOT!
>
>Gerald

True.

Being myself an author (oups, I wrote a book and edited it myself),
I proposed to ANQ (Archives Nationales du Quebec) to buy one copy
($12, very cheap price).  The book contains some unique data
(historical information I found after some searches in ANQ Montreal
Center) not available elsewhere, until someone plagiate me.  See,
they refuse to pay $10, but they paid $10000 for microfilms already
available somewhere else in the same town.

So, they are not the best managers and someone is not doing his job
correctly.

Another similar story I heard.  Someone made a search on his family
(a genealogical work).  He asked to someone an evaluation of the
work ($2000) and gave a copy to ANQ.  Obviously, ANQ does not buy this
kind of work, but deliver a receipt for taxes purpose (i.e. you reduce
your income in your revenu form by this amount or something like that).
The estimate by ANQ (and an estimate that costed them nothing) ws
$600.  On tax return, the difference is very large.  Actually, the
ANQ asked to an external group (doing so, they recognize they don't
have the authority or the experience to do that kind of job, which
is in their mandate).  That external group (an association of dinosaurs
indeed) jsut evaluated the time to handcopy the work, and not the search
time.  They bashed the work.

So, there is a lot of public servants not doing their job.  The head
of BNQ looks like one.

BTW, the best collection of Quebec's town directories is in Ottawa
(one in Montreal, at BNQ, has only the Montreal series almost complete,
most of Quebec City, and a few in other towns; in Ottawa, there are
shelves full of directories, coast to coast).

The big question : who is actually responsible.  Is Ottawa overspending
in culture?  The Ottawa Federal Library (BNC/CNL?) is full of books,
but is located in a remote area for most potential readers.  Sure I
would like to explore all those town directories, but they are 3 hours
from me, in a library opened 9 to 5 on week days only.  To compare, BNQ
is (except summer) opened on Saturday, and ANQ (in Montreal only) are
opened 7 days a week, often they are opened on holidays.  So, what is
best : a library that will collect anything, but will give a very
limited access in a remote place, or a library with less books, but
a better access?  At least, the USA system of National Archives have
many Centers troughout the country, instead of concentrating every thing
in Washington.

My last word.  The manuscripts of Tremblay would not have been lost if
Ottawa did not buy them.  They would if a private collector bought them,
and the possibility of such thing is not raised at all.  While there is
some value, I hardly understand that high price.  A lot of less known
authors may need help.  Tremblay is in a special place by himself,
but he is not the only one.  Moreover, in this case, this is a spending
to compensate bankrupt of the editor.  The same case, in my mind, as
the compensation they gave to actioneers of banks in Edmonton after
bankrupt (they should have paid only the $65000 guaranteed, not the
millions some get).


-- 
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