Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Daniel.
This is an important economic driver, as I said in an answer to a previous question. There are 630,000 people employed in the arts and culture sector here in Canada. This is almost $50 billion that comes into our economy every single year. Not only is this an economic driver, but it is also something that we as Canadians hold near and dear to us.
Our culture, our arts make us who we are. It's about where we came from, who we are today, and where we're going. All of that is typically reflected in our arts and culture, and that's how we celebrate who we are as Canadians. That's why it's so invaluable. That is why Prime Minister Harper continues to invest substantially in arts and culture.
As you indicated, we are the only country in the G-7 to maintain that funding. We're very proud of that fact.
Funding was also maintained for official languages programs. Yes, we did have to tighten our belts in a number of areas, but where we tightened our belts and where we saw changes was really in the back-office elements, trying to find efficiencies within my department, for example.
That's where we were able to do our part to try to alleviate the deficit and return to a balance, but we should be very proud of our record. This government has done more for arts and culture investments than any previous government, in terms of the level of investment.
In budget 2014, we also did something that's very important for predictability, something that the arts and culture community has been asking us for some time. We made many of the programs that sunset permanent so that the arts and culture sectors in both languages—because we have applications in both languages that are treated equally—now have predictability. They don't have to worry as the sunsets are coming about whether they are going to have funding to continue.
This was well received across the industry. It was rarely talked about in question period. I continue to wait for that all-important question from the opposition, but I'm going to tell you here and now. It's one of the first things I did as minister and one that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life because it was the right thing to do.
Thank you.