Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 4th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I just went to a meeting of chairs the other day and I have decided--I hope I'm not being a dictator here--the fair way is to have 48 hours' notice. It's two working days, and I suggest that. We just went through it with Mr. Bélanger. His motion came in last Friday afternoon and we put it off until today. I suggest that with Mr. Angus' motion we put it to 48 hours. That's my decision.

We'll carry on to the next part on our agenda. This will help. Everyone has in front of them a review of crown corporations for future meetings. I don't know if anyone wants to review any of those crown corporations.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

The Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, is an actor that it would be important to meet earlier rather than later. A vast number of files are presently under consideration at CRTC and it would be advisable that we synchronize as much as possible our action with that of the CRTC and that we should be able to understand what they intend to do, inasmuch as it is possible to ascertain their intentions at the present time. As well, it would be good that they be briefed about our concerns. In my view, in the list that we presently have before us, the priority should go to the CRTC.

I also want to add—and I don't know if we need to give notice anymore for this or not, but I'm sure you'll instruct me—that there are two items that are not on the list that I think we may, as a committee, want to consider taking a look at. There are some things I'm sure most of us have had communications about over the course of the summer.

One of them is the future of the Indian art collection in the Government of Canada. It resides principally with Indian Affairs, so there may be some question as to whether we should look into it or not. However, as a committee, we may indeed have such a responsibility. That's one item I imagine would need one meeting at the most, just to get a sense of the difficulties and the challenges the collection faces. That's number one.

The other one I'd like to mention—well, there's a slew of others—seems to be a perennial one, and that's the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund. It seems always to be on its last legs, always scrambling, when it has done tremendous work for our country.

So those are two that I would add. If you want me to do so in writing, I'd be delighted to do so, Mr. Chairman, but those are items on which I think the committee would benefit from hearing something. I also suspect the people we hear from would also benefit from our actions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We've heard those. They're noted, and we can look into them.

My thing is that there have been a couple of requests. I don't know if everyone recently received the response to the report on the feature film industry. That's something I think we could look into somewhere down the line.

I've had a request from a group that would like to make a presentation regarding pirating of movies and those types of things, which Canada almost seems to be the hotbed for. Again, if we looked at the report and we heard from these people, we'd see it's a crime. It may be in the wrong department, whether it's with Heritage or whether it's with Industry. Maybe it should be with Justice.

There's no way of being able to get at some of these people. Camcording has become a big problem here in Canada. But in our movie theatres, whether the person finds the person who is doing the camcording, there's no justice to be able to take them on. So that's a suggestion that could go along with a review of that report. It's just a suggestion that I have.

The other request to appear is from Mr. Manera. I understand that he's the former chair of the CBC, am I correct? Again, he would be appearing as a private citizen. Maybe we could put him on with something regarding the CBC mandate or something like that, I don't know.

Those requests have been made, sir.

Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to comment carefully here. If we're going to start accommodating requests, then I would want to make sure that's done in the context of where we've set the schedule of the items we wish to deal with. If the government were indeed responding to the House of Commons' unanimous vote that the terms of reference of a mandate would come first to this committee as the group mandated to review the mandate of CBC–Radio Canada, then in that context it would be absolutely primordial to invite the gentlemen, to accept his request, along with a slew of others. But since we have a few other things on our plate, is it the right thing to do without that government initiative?

It's the same thing for the request about piracy. My colleague Madame Keeper suggests that if we're going to do that, perhaps it should be in the larger context of the whole film industry, a whole look at it again, because periodically it's something that this committee has done and should continue doing. It's in that sense that I hesitate to accept, in the immediacy, the request to appear before us that you've just mentioned. I'm not refusing it, but it should be in the context of where we are driving the agenda.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I have one question again. I know a few of us at this table worked on that report for the feature film industry. Our report went in and we asked for comments. The government has sent those back. Do we just forget about the study we just did last year and set it on the shelf? That was my suggestion, that a couple of those things might be able to work with that. Are we going to do another total review? I don't think so, not right now. If it had been done five years ago, that would be different. Again, though, some of these issues were very prominent in some of the talks that we had as we went around.

Are there any other suggestions?

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I still see the need for a follow-up to our film study. As you recall, it was a scramble to get that out because the election was coming, and we really never even had an opportunity, as a committee, to sit down and talk about it. It was like the ink wasn't dry and we were all gone.

In deference to all the work that was done, it would be good to have one or two meetings at which we could look at those recommendations so that we are all up to speed on them as a committee. I don't think we need to go any further than that.

The issue of piracy was raised, and we dealt with that in the film study. It's still an ongoing problem, but it seems to me that when we start hearings on copyright, piracy is one element that will no doubt be part of a bill. I don't know, but I would imagine piracy is an issue that would be looked at, so we could maybe deal with those issues then.

In terms of suggestions, I raised this one suggestion last term, but we again spent so much time on film that we weren't able to deal with it.

As far as Franco-Ontarian organizations are concerned, particularly those who are working with remote rural communities, it is necessary to deal with their concerns. I have met with several organizations from the North.

These organizations receive their support from Heritage, and what I'm hearing from them is that it's not so much a lack of funds—because everybody, of course, wants more funds—as it is how the funds are allocated for francophones outside of Quebec. I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to actually meet with some of these groups, because they're doing the work on the ground. A session or so would be sufficient, and it would again be a chance for us to learn from some of the groups that are dealing with Heritage, because they're doing a lot of very strong grassroots work. So I'd like to find a session at which we could accommodate them, sometime between now and the spring.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I have no objection to Mr. Angus' suggestion. However, for your information, yesterday or the day before, I replaced a colleague at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. This committee is about to travel all around the country; they have been attempting to do so for ten years, but they always met with filibustering from the opposition.

If the Standing Committee on Official Languages indeed succeeds in undertaking this tour around the country, the purpose of the trip is to meet with all communities. We could benefit from their undertaking by determining where are the problems in the Department of Canadian Heritage, because there are some, as Mr. Angus was saying.

Here is what I have in mind. If we do want to meet with communities later on, it might perhaps be useful for us to make suggestions—or even requests—to the Standing Committee on Official Languages. We might request from them that during their trip around the country, they ask questions specifically on bureaucratic red tape.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

That's a good idea, but what I'm hearing from these groups is that they're always being told to go to official languages, yet they deal with their funding from Heritage. It's just a pragmatic issue that this is where they're getting their dollars, and they just want to inform this committee.

Also, I'd had a commitment from the minister to meet with the organization. She said at a public committee that she'd meet, but she has been busy and it hasn't happened. So if we're always just putting it in the box of official languages, these issues still aren't being addressed because official languages isn't dealing with the programs the way we are. I don't think we'd be circumventing the work of official languages if they are doing a project. What I'm looking for is a session, although it might be two, because I'm sure the Acadians would want to be involved as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Kotto.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Chairman, before dealing with another matter, I would like to come back to the proposal put forward by my colleague Mr. Bélanger.

He suggested earlier to invite the CRTC. We had made up at the beginning a list of Crown corporations, but the CRTC is not a Crown corporation. I wanted to clarify that.

However, I support this request because it is a very hot topic. I will also support other proposals, given the response given by the minister concerning the film industry policy, because new developments came up last summer, especially in Quebec, which resulted in us giving even more careful consideration to this topic. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

If everyone takes a look at the schedule they have in front of them, until October 25, those are confirmed.

There is October 30. Our staff has put in a copyright briefing on new technology, but it's a question mark. If there is something else someone would like to put in that spot, that's fine. If we still want to look at copyright, we can get our witnesses here for that particular meeting.

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I am definitely keen on copyright technologies. My concern is that there's going to be a big gap, because we don't know when the legislation is coming in. If we're having legislation this fall, I think it would be very pertinent to have the meeting now. If it's not coming until the spring, I feel this is going to be left out on its own. I'd prefer to bunch this up closer to when we know the legislation is coming in.

[An hon. member]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Is it agreed around the table that on October 30 we don't have the copyright session?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Unless we have information about the legislation. Let's wait until the legislation is tabled in the House. Then, between the tabling in the House...I'm sure we could set a--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We can always move things around, but our experts here need to know where we're going so they can have their research done for us. They can't do it overnight.

One thing we could do on October 30, then, as Mr. Bélanger has requested, is have the CRTC come here. We could ask some questions or get some clarification on some things. It seems there's interest around the table.

What would be your pleasure? Do we have agreement around the table that we have the CRTC here on October 30?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Now we get into November.

Again going back to Mr. Bélanger, we have the future of the Indian art collection.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

That would be great.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

We talked about bringing museum witnesses, so I certainly want to make sure that's happening before we allow too much time to be allocated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Would that be Wednesday, November 1?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

And the art collection the following week.