These associations provide the Corporation with technical expertise, enabling it to realize its ideas while at the same time presenting its collaborators with interesting technological challenges. Together with its partners, the Corporation pushes the envelope of what was previously believed possible. Institutional partnerships are also important in order to share expertise and to facilitate the delivery of information to the public at large. The Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation has agreements with the Museum Computer Network, with government departments such as Canadian Heritage, Industry Canada and Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and with educational institutions and research centres. This initiative has also enabled France to link nearly 250 of its cultural institutions to the French site of Virtual Museum of New France TM .
History is important to a nation like Canada.
If we do not learn from the past, we stumble through the present and will need a Braille map for the future. We have been told to listen to the voices of our ancestors. We have been reminded of the power of the past to influence the future. But nobody gave us instructions for achieving this delicate balancing act. We have vaults and archives and warehouses full of priceless artifacts, photos and documents.