Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 1st, 2011

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you.

I am going to share my time with Mr. Cash.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Thank you so much.

I want to talk a little bit about the Canada Media Fund. We've been talking about Canada 150 and discussing some of Canada's internationally recognized icons and exports. One of them is documentary films.

A number of documentary filmmakers have spoken to me. I know that some have spoken to the ministry about problems for documentary filmmakers in meeting the new requirements of the Canada Media Fund. It seems to me that with Canada 150 we're actually making it harder for documentary filmmakers, who would actually be able to give voice to the aspirations of our country at 150 years old. There seems to be a strange dichotomy in the department. I want you to speak to this issue. As you know, there are issues around documentary filmmakers being able to meet the requirements of the digital component of the fund.

Also, can you speak to requirements around the audience base for the work? We know that this requirement doesn't really cross over into many stand-alone documentaries, yet these are the kinds of things for which Canada has become known internationally; we're not known internationally for our documentary series on what we now call reality TV.

I'd like you to speak to this issue around documentary films first.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Sure. As you know, the Canada Media Fund is now in its third year since we created it. I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to remind this House as well that part of these estimates in the budget we're passing take in the Canada Media Fund.

Scott and I were just talking a minute ago about sunsetters. The Canada Media Fund used to be a sunsetter. It's not anymore. It is an A-base investment of the government. It's a permanent investment. With regard to that, the good news for everybody, including documentary filmmakers, is that we can have an ongoing debate about how best to make that investment work for all Canadians, including documentary filmmakers.

The Canada Media Fund has multiple strains of funding, including an experimental stream. The experimental stream goes to things like video games, kids' programming, and stuff that's purely digital. It's up to the Canada Media Fund to make sure they have funds available to documentary filmmakers.

The Canada Media Fund operates independently and at arm's length from the government; we have two members of the board. It's a five-person board. It's their responsibility to make sure they have funds available. If people are feeling pressure in one year versus another, then they should change the criteria to make sure that funds are available. As you say, documentaries are a unique aspect of Canada's film universe, because they're not often films that have a massive opening weekend and a great first month or month and a half in which they make all their money and then it tapers off from there. Documentaries float around for decades and decades. Their economic benefit shouldn't have to be realized in the first three months following release in order to demonstrate their worth.

Documentaries are incredible teaching tools. I graduated from high school in 1994. I remember watching documentaries from the 1960s that had the same value in 1994 that they had in the 1960s. The importance of documentaries for our cultural institutions, for learning, and for telling Canadian stories to one another is critical. If Telefilm isn't helping to support, if the NFB isn't there--and the NFB, by the way, does deserve a great deal of credit for the way in which it has promoted and pushed documentaries digitally--and if the CMF needs to have some changes to the criteria we've imposed on them, the transfer of $100 million per year, then that's certainly something we can consider as a government.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Cash.

Mr. Hillyer.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I want to talk about funding for the arts a little more. You talked about the Canada Media Fund and working with the Montreal-based company Resolution Pictures. You mentioned a couple of times that we're the only G-8 country that not only did not decrease our funding to the arts but actually increased funding to arts and culture. For a Conservative government to do that in tough economic times, there must be some sort of economic reason. Can you talk about how financial support for arts and culture actually helps with economic growth?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Sure: I'll give you a couple of examples from the economic action plan.

The cultural spaces fund is one of the programs in my department that I referenced earlier. They have an annual budget of $30 million a year just for cultural infrastructure for the entire country. The average contribution from that fund is about $150,000 per year. Typically, those funds go to things like replacing seats in a theatre.

Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, B.C., had matching funds, and for $35,000, I think it was, they replaced all the seats in their theatre. It was a pretty badly built theatre, actually, when it was first built; it's only been up and running for about eight years. They replaced the seats. It was originally a static theatre presentation opportunity, but because they replaced the seats, they now can have dinner theatre. They can have shows. They could do performing arts and they could have musical performances, or they could open it up and do improv for kids when student groups come through. They've taken what was a static performing centre and made it much more dynamic, and the opportunity for more presentations has gone through the roof.

We also do things like put in fire suppression equipment in old theatres. The Imperial Theatre in New Brunswick had a leaking building envelope, so for about I think $200,000 we fixed that to maintain the integrity of the structure of that grand old theatre of Canadian culture.

In the economic action plan, we doubled that fund of $30 million per year to $60 million over the course of the economic action plan, and we of course saw requests flood in.

Keep in mind as well that a lot of our theatres, like a lot of our rinks and a lot of our other infrastructure, were built for the centennial. This is, by the way, going back to the beginning, part of your study about Canada's 150th birthday. We have a lot of theatres across this country--small theatres, community theatres--that were built as part of Canada's centennial in 1967, and a lot of them need support, rebuilding, and up-fitting. They need to replace copper pipes, to put in state-of-the-art technology, and to get rid of asbestos and things like that. So we provide funding for that.

Another program we had-- to go specifically to your question, Jim, about the economic bang for the buck--was the marquee tourism program, which supported large-scale events and festivals that bring in thousands and thousands of visitors to our big centres. The Calgary Stampede, the PNE in Vancouver, and the Pride festival in Toronto are large marquee events that bring in thousands of visitors and millions of dollars in economic activities to our cities all across the country. Those events that receive those funds, like Luminato, were very appreciative of those funds, which helped a lot of events that were going to have very difficult years in 2008, 2009, and 2010 have some of their best years ever.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

I want to pass my time on to Mr. Calandra.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

We should have maybe 30 seconds and then we can get to the vote.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Okay.

Minister, I'll summarize by saying this. I was somewhat surprised and disappointed by the vice-chair's comments on this committee.

We've of course dealt with the Bay of Fundy. We've dealt with hearing from the CBC. In our study of Canada's 150th anniversary, we've heard from the Stratford Festival and we've heard from the Banff Centre. We've heard from first nations. We've heard from Just for Laughs. We've heard from museums. We've heard from an extraordinarily diverse cross-section of people who are very excited not just about Canada's 150, but about leading up to the 150th. Of course, the committee is the master of its work and deals with motions as they are presented, and I think we've been a very busy and aggressive committee.

I know that we don't have a lot of time. I know that you're doing music nights, which is an offshoot of the very, very successful movie nights. I wonder if you could just give us a brief second on the upcoming music night that you have.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Well, since you've asked....

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

This is where I get to be a promoter. Andrew Cash can tell me whether I do a good job of promoting an event or not.

I'll just say this; I know we have to go to a vote. As I said, Canada is a massive country. Our cultural communities are brilliant, diverse, and wonderful, but it's very rare that we don't get to see.... Very often, Canadians see the huge megastars who do incredibly well internationally or very well in the United States and who we know are local talents in our local communities.

But something that I think has been missed for a long time is to know about all the talent that exists across this country and how brilliant it is. In particular, the wall that seems to exist between English and French Canada is I think a real tragedy, because English Canadians should know who Louis-José Houde is, and they should know who Les Cowboys Fringants are. They should know who these brilliant Quebec artists and actors are. We want to break down this wall. The reverse is equally true.

We've had seven movie nights now. Our first movie night had I think about 150 people out to it. Our largest movie night had 1,100 people out. These are all paid for entirely by sponsors on the outside; no taxpayer money goes into it. Their host is the NAC now; it is our permanent home for movie nights. They're very popular. We alternate between English and French films all the time.

The idea is to get as many of the 308 members of Parliament as possible into a room--they represent every square inch of this massive country--to expose them to Canadian artists and creators in film, so that maybe when they go back to their districts, they'll say to people: “You know what? You should see the movie Starbuck, because it's a fantastic movie”. Or they may ask, “Do you know Barney's Version, as written by Mordecai Richler?” Mordecai Richler just passed away recently, but Florence continues to be a fantastic voice for her husband, and Barney's Version is based on his last and best book. They may say, “Go see that film.”

You get people talking about Canadian culture, Canadian talent, Canadian writers, Canadian films--and you get them talking about Canada. It's easy to talk about Americans, but to talk about Canadians you need a push, because it's just too big a country, and it has too much talent not to miss it.

Because movie nights have gone well, we have now extended as well to having music nights. On Monday, December 12, I hope I'll see all of you at the National Arts Centre to see the Jim Cuddy band, along with Marie-Ève Janvier and Jean-François Breau, two fantastic francophone artists. I believe both are from the Acadian peninsula, and of course Jim Cuddy's achievements speak for themselves. So it will be a great night of music in a non-partisan environment--with food after--to enjoy some Canadian talents. You can go home and tell them. I'm very pleased to have as sponsors Music Canada, Quebecor, and others. Supporting Canadian culture is very important, and I thank them for stepping up to support this night.

Is that okay, Andrew?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Minister. Thank you for your time in appearing here.

We will suspend for just 20 seconds and then quickly have our vote.

Okay? We will proceed to the voting on the supplementary estimates.

Shall vote 1b carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Is it agreed?

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Does anybody else have that piece of paper...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

No. It just lists the different votes under the estimates. You should have your supplementary estimates book.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Okay. Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

I shall now call the votes.

CANADIAN HERITAGE

Department

Vote 1b--Operating expenditures..........$7,953,692

Vote 5b--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$157,930,630

Canada Council for the Arts

Vote 10b--Payments to the Canada Council for the Arts..........$1

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Vote 15b--Payments to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for operating expenditures..........$60,000,000

Canadian Museum of Civilization

Vote 35b--Payments to the Canadian Museum of Civilization..........$665,000

Library and Archives of Canada

Vote 50b--Operating expenditures..........$1

National Arts Centre Corporation

Vote 60b--Payments to the National Arts Centre Corporation..........$1

(Votes 1b, 5b, 10b, 15b, 35b, 50b and 60b agreed to)

Shall I report the supplementary estimates to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

I will do that.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.