As part of the Expo 86 celebrations, the Haida artist Bill Reid was commissioned to carve an 80-foot canoe. When Reid decided he needed to carve a smaller prototype first, and with no room in the budget for the additional expense, Peter M. Brown, the vice-chairman, offered to pay for it himself. Today that 10-foot prototype is part of the fine collection of Haida art that Brown has collected in the years since.
