Minister of Canadian Heritage

Minister of Canadian Heritage
Incumbent Mélanie Joly since 4 November 2015
Department of Canadian Heritage
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council
Appointer	Governor General of Canada
Term length	At Her Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holder	Sheila Copps
Formation	12 July 1996
Website	www.canadianheritage.gc.ca

The Minister of Canadian Heritage (French: Ministre du Patrimoine canadien) is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who heads the Department of Canadian Heritage, the federal government department responsible for Canada's Arts, Culture, Media, and Sport.

History

The position was created in 1996 to combine the posts of Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship and Minister of Communications. The "Status of Women" was merged from the Minister responsible for the Status of Women in 2006. In 2008, the Status of Women portfolio was transferred to a Minister of State.

On August 16, 2013, the multiculturalism portfolio was assigned to the Hon. Jason Kenney who was appointed Minister for Multiculturalism in addition to his other portfolios.

Those portfolios and responsibilities such as for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, were returned to the Heritage Minister with the swearing in of the 29th Canadian Ministry in November 2015. The present Minister of Canadian Heritage is the Hon. Mélanie Joly. Joly also became responsible for the National Capital Commission, which was formerly under the senior Ottawa-area cabinet minister under the Harper government, and the Canadian Secretary to the Queen, which was previously under the Privy Council Office.

List of Ministers

Key:

  Liberal Party of Canada

  Conservative Party of Canada

No.	Name (Portfolio)	Term of office		Political party	Ministry
1	Sheila Copps (Canadian Heritage)	July 12, 1996	December 11, 2003	Liberal	26 (Chrétien)
2	Hélène Scherrer (Canadian Heritage)	December 12, 2003	July 19, 2004	Liberal	27 (Martin)
3	Liza Frulla (Canadian Heritage)	July 20, 2004	February 5, 2006	Liberal
4	Bev Oda (Canadian Heritage and Status of Women)	February 6, 2006	August 14, 2007	Conservative	28 (Harper)
5	Josée Verner (Canadian Heritage and Status of Women)	August 14, 2007	October 29, 2008	Conservative
6	James Moore (Canadian Heritage and Official Languages)	October 30, 2008	July 15, 2013	Conservative
7	Shelly Glover (Canadian Heritage and Official Languages)	July 15, 2013	November 4, 2015	Conservative
8	Mélanie Joly (Canadian Heritage)	November 4, 2015	Incumbent	Liberal	29 (J. Trudeau)

Responsibilities

Prior to 2003, their responsibilities included National Parks and historic sites.

Currently, the Minister of Canadian Heritage is responsible for the Department of Canadian Heritage as well as:

• Canada Council for the Arts
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board
• Canadian Race Relations Foundation
• Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
• Canadian Secretary to the Queen
• Library and Archives Canada
• National Arts Centre
• National Battlefields Commission
• National Capital Commission
• National Film Board of Canada
• National museums, including:
  • Canadian Museum of History Corporation (Canadian Museum of History, Canadian War Museum, Virtual Museum of New France)
  • Canadian Museum for Human Rights
  • Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
  • Canadian Museum of Nature
  • Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation (Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, Canada Aviation and Space Museum)
  • National Gallery of Canada Corporation (National Gallery of Canada, Portrait Gallery of Canada)
• Office of Indian Residential Schools Resolution
• Public Service Commission of Canada
• Public Service Staff Relations Board
• Telefilm Canada

The Minister's general powers, duties, and functions are set out by section 4 of the Department of Canadian Heritage Act, which provides as follows:

4. (1) The powers, duties and functions of the Minister extend to and include all matters over which Parliament has jurisdiction, not by law assigned to any other department, board or agency of the Government of Canada, relating to Canadian identity and values, cultural development and heritage.

(2) The Minister’s jurisdiction referred to in subsection (1) encompasses, but is not limited to, jurisdiction over

(a) the promotion of a greater understanding of human rights, fundamental freedoms and related values;

(b) multiculturalism;

(c) the arts, including cultural aspects of the status of the artist;

(d) cultural heritage and industries, including performing arts, visual and audio-visual arts, publishing, sound recording, film, video and literature;

(e) national battlefields;

(f) the encouragement, promotion and development of sport;

(g) the advancement of the equality of status and use of English and French and the enhancement and development of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada;

(h) state ceremonial and Canadian symbols;

(i) broadcasting, except in respect of spectrum management and the technical aspects of broadcasting;

(j) the formulation of cultural policy, including the formulation of cultural policy as it relates to foreign investment and copyright;

(k) the conservation, exportation and importation of cultural property; and

(l) national museums, archives and libraries.

In addition, sections 42 to 44 of the Official Languages Act confer certain other responsibilities on the Minister of Canadian Heritage (see Minister responsible for Official Languages (Canada)).

References

• Our Ministers and Secretaries of State