Paul Calandra

[Canadian Heritage, November 22nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said several times in the House, our government has made unprecedented investments in the cultural sector, including the War of 1812 exhibit.

It also includes a new Museum of Canadian History, with a $25 million investment that the NDP members have already said that they will be voting against. Every time we have made investments in arts and culture, they have voted against it.

Through the leadership of the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, we have brought in a new Copyright Act, which is protecting our artists and unleashing the potential of our entertainment software industry. We are proud of our artists and we wish they would start talking—

[Culture, November 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, even though the CPF was launched in 2010-11, the program's new funding formula was not implemented until 2011-12. The amounts received in 2010-11 were the result of a one-time measure to ease the transition to the CPF and are not representative of what should be expected in the future.

The CPF is a new program, having been operating for only two years, and the aid to publishers funding formula for only one year. We are monitoring its performance and gathering feedback from clients and stakeholders, including official language and minority publications.

We are very proud of the investments we have made in arts and culture. The Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages has been an extraordinary advocate for arts and culture throughout this country. He is very well respected for the investments that he made. We are very proud that we will continue to do so in the economic action plan going forward.

[Culture, November 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, our government is proud to support almost 900 Canadian magazines and community newspapers each year, including about 25 official language minority publications, through the Canada periodical fund.

The Canada periodical fund replaced the former publications assistance program and the Canada magazine fund. The new fund is a major improvement as it is simpler and gives publishers the flexibility to spend funds as they see fit. This is particularly relevant now as it enables publishers also to prepare for and seize opportunities in digital publishing.

The goal of the fund is to ensure that Canadians have access to a diverse range of Canadian community newspapers and magazines, including official language minority publications.

There have been no cuts to the Canada periodical fund. In fact, last year the government re-affirmed its commitment to the newspaper and magazine industries. We confirmed a total of $75.5 million in permanent funding for the Canada periodical fund. This provides funding stability to the industry and allows newspaper and magazine publishers to make long-term plans for their business.

Official language minority papers are an important part of the communities they serve. They are often the only source of local news and information in English or in French in that region.

Many of these papers have been serving their communities for decades, papers such as La Voix acadienne from Prince Edward Island, Le Nord which serve francophones in northeastern Ontario, and The Gaspé Spec.

In recognition of the importance of official language newspapers and their specific needs, the fund has special eligibility requirements in place to improve access to the program. I will just mention the two most important ones.

First, official language publications need to sell only 2,500 copies annually, whereas all other publications must sell at least 5,000 copies to be eligible.

Second, official language minority publications are exempt from having to sell 50% of their circulation. This is a significant exemption because many of these publications distribute a lot of free copies and would not otherwise be eligible for the program.

I am pleased to say that, through the Canada periodical fund, the government has increased its support to official language minority publications and has expanded the number of new recipients into the program.

For the current fiscal year, official language minority publications, both English and French, received $755,000. This is an increase of more than 12% from what they received in 2009.

It is also very encouraging to see that the program is attracting new official language minority publications that were not previously receiving support. In 2010-11, the first year of the Canada periodical fund, 17% of the official language minority publications were new recipients.

[Canadian Heritage, November 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, the committee did bring forward a 150 report, which will be somewhat of a road map to help celebrate the best country in the world, Canada, on our 150th birthday.

Unfortunately, when we brought forward to the House the creation of two new national museums, one in Winnipeg and the Pier 21 Museum of Immigration, the NDP voted against it. We recently brought forward a new $25 million investment for the new Museum of Canadian History. The NDP members, without even seeing the legislation, have already said they will be voting against that as well.

When it comes to cultural spending and funding for artists—

[National Philanthropy Day Act, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I was just uncertain as to how much more time was left in this debate and how many more speakers we have.

[National Philanthropy Day Act, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member just accused members on this side of the House of saying things that were unflattering about her and no member from this side of the House actually did that. I am hoping that the hon. member will take the opportunity to review what was said in the House, and will come back tomorrow and apologize to the members on this side of the House whom she accused of saying personal things about her.

What we are trying to do is to get a bill that recognizes volunteers through the House. That is what we are actually trying to do with co-operation—

[National Philanthropy Day Act, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, just quickly on a point of order, I would simply say that this is about a national philanthropy day. The Canadian public wants to know why it is so important that the government move very fast to get its agenda through the House. If the NDP cannot even approve quickly a national philanthropy day--

[National Philanthropy Day Act, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I too want to thank the hon. member for bringing this bill forward. I also thank the gentleman from the other place who sponsored it.

We have seen this bill come forward in the House before. As was mentioned, it came before the Canadian heritage committee and it was one of those moments at committee where members really took in what was being said and agreed on everything.

It goes without saying that volunteers have helped build our country. It is on the backs of people who have volunteered their service to the country that we have built the nation we have.

The member for Richmond Hill stated quite succinctly how important volunteers were to our country.

On the weekend, I had an opportunity to be at what is called the “Celebration of Hope”. It is the 24th anniversary of this spectacular event in my riding, where volunteers bring together hundreds of people to raise funds for cancer research.

At that time, I also had the distinct pleasure to present the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal to two people who had helped make this 24-year fundraising campaign such a success, Allan and Betty Bell, two pillars of the community, who despite the fact they suffered the loss of Ms. Bell's daughter and Allen Bell's sister, they took that and built it into something that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over 24 years for our community. It was not just the fact that these two individuals had spent so much time building and putting their time and efforts into making the Celebration of Hope such a success. It was the thousands of people who came together on a Sunday afternoon to hear the stories of people who had been touched by cancer and to hear of the successes that 24 years of fundraising by not only the people in this organization but from across Canada had led to by providing better results for people who suffered from cancer.

I also had the distinct honour this weekend of presenting 17 Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medals to individuals from across Ontario, but predominantly from my riding, who had done the same. They have gone just a bit further, worked just a bit harder and have given a lot of their time and energy to causes to help build our community and our province, and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is an opportunity for us to thank them.

I will not take up too much of the House's time with respect to the bill. It is quite clear that members on all sides of the House are supportive of taking a day and recognizing all the individuals who have helped to build our country and to thank them for their service to their communities and the province. I know we on this side of the House, as well as members on both sides of the House, look forward to moving this bill forward and having that one day a year to build on, as the Prime Minister announced, November 15, the day that we would celebrate our volunteers. He also brought forward the volunteer service awards in recognition of those individuals who had worked so hard. We will build on that. This is a great opportunity for us to do that.

I thank the members of the heritage committee who helped bring this forward very fast and the hon. member for his stewardship of it through the House.

[Cultural Industry, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I said with respect to this organization, after 35 years it is still receiving some 60% of its budget from hard-working taxpayers. It is time it moved to a different system of financing, one where it asks the people who support it, the stakeholders, to contribute a little more.

This government is making a lot of investments in arts and culture. The NDP continues to vote against all of those investments. We are bringing our investments throughout the country. We are supporting festivals. We are supporting community theatre. We are making the types of investments that will lead to better jobs, better opportunities and better results for our artists across this country.

[Cultural Industry, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, after 35 years, this organization is still receiving some 60% of its operating funding from the hard-working taxpayers of this country.

We did provide some transition funding for this organization this year, so that it could actually go to a new system of financing and ask its stakeholders and the people who actually support this organization to play a bigger role in helping them move forward.

Canadians work very hard in this time of economic crisis, and we want to make sure that those funds are used wisely for all Canadians.