Official Languages committee  The effects are incalculable. If we look at television, there were recently some conditions of licence imposed upon CBC last year to create more locally with local producers. That is now potentially in jeopardy. There's the question of production, which is important. There's a question of how radio promotes local talent.

Official Languages committee  The overall is 85%, and once you get into the younger demographics, under 40, it's 90% to 92%. An interesting factor is that half of the anglos in Quebec are in romantic relationships with francophones. That's a fact. It's an extraordinary fact. It's a strategy of survival, perhaps, but I can't think of any other community in the world in which a minority is that closely related to the majority.

Official Languages committee  We should have more exchanges, absolutely.

Official Languages committee  That could take an hour or two to talk about. The digital shift—the transfer of product to the Internet, free content, free music—has had a devastating effect on the revenues of many artists, and it's not specific to anglophone artists. Young people are used to getting free content or cheap content.

Official Languages committee  The expense of production has plummeted, absolutely. Once upon a time, you would have had to rent a studio this large and pay $10,000 a day to have a certain quality of music that you can now record in your bathroom with your computer. After having created that music or that film, the distribution and making some money from it is a challenge.

Official Languages committee  Well, there are two answers. QUESCREN, the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network, did a study three years ago on the social economy and how it applied to English Quebec, and it ties into things like tourism, to ways of monetizing artistic activities. CEDEC, the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation, is in the process of doing a study on tourism and the economic benefits of tourism.

Official Languages committee  Our operating funds through the Department of Canadian Heritage have been $95,000 for the last few years.

Official Languages committee  It's per year. We had an increase this year, which was beneficial, but we have been operating on that kind of money supplemented by projects. We haven't had very good luck with Quebec for reasons that are partly technical and partly sociological. We're not eligible for any kind of operating funds from the Canada Council because we're multidisciplinary and they have disciplines, and we can have specific projects.

Official Languages committee  Yes, I would certainly agree with that. There was a time when a small number of people, like yourself, sort of hung in there. You know that at the time there were hundreds, maybe...dozens. There just weren't that many professional artists choosing to stay in Quebec. Something happened around 1995.

Official Languages committee  Then they would say, “But no, you're not a real one”. There was a time when there was a handful of people who were all kinds of these odd ducks; whereas I think now, it's not just some odd ducks. There's a shift; there's an integration; there's a partnership that I don't think was evident before 1995.

Official Languages committee  There are two parts to the question, so let's answer the first part. Why there are so many artists in Quebec is a bit of a mystery. We're only starting to figure it out. You have to go back to the seventies and the eighties, which we alluded to, when there was a mass exodus of anglos from Quebec, including many artists, for all kinds of reasons.

Official Languages committee  Well, there are two large directions we work in. One is connecting artists to the community, which is where our work with education and health is important. Artists can be extremely beneficial for communities working with youth at risk and for stimulating education. There's a connection there between art and community via youth which is very important.

Official Languages committee  There really aren't any plans to support that type of initiative. Some artists sing in French to appeal to a francophone audience. I can name two or three anglophones who speak French well and who write songs in French in order to reach a francophone audience. There are others, like Susie Arioli, who you've all probably heard of.

Official Languages committee  He was one of the first to become bilingual, to speak and sing in French.

Official Languages committee  Yes.