Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Ministers.
We agree on the fact that the copyright regime needs to be modernized. That requires balanced legislation, as we said. It also means that the committee has to be able to operate in a collegial and effective manner. I hope we can avoid rhetoric.
I would like to briefly discuss levies, without dwelling on it. I would just like people to stick to the facts. You are talking about a tax. For me, a tax is when the government raises money and uses it to meet its own requirements. In the case of a levy, the government doesn't receive a penny. It is not the one spending that money; the money is only redistributed by the copyright collective.
So, I would just like everyone to stick to the facts. I don't think it will be helpful for people to use excessive language or use words or situations for political purposes that do not reflect reality.
We talked about the need for a balanced bill. In my opinion, this one is not. Some aspects of it are positive but it also involves a loss of acquired rights that will result in income losses, primarily for creators.
I have visited the ten provinces, and I hope to be able to travel to the territories soon. I met with a number of groups in different communities who took part in roundtable discussions. It's always the same category of people telling me that there is something wrong. These people are losing their rights, either through the elimination of a levy, through an education exemption which represents a potential loss of fees, or through transitory recordings.
Have you analyzed these income losses? Have you determined how much the loss of these fees will cost creators or the industry?