Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Madam Minister. I'm sorry you can only stay an hour. I'd be pleased to have you for longer or even more often.
I listened to your comments. I'm going to get the written version and analyze them in depth. For the moment, allow me to state more of a comment than a question.
Some were very surprised that your government had decided to invest a little more money in the Canada Council for the Arts. There were zero expectations in that regard. However, others were very disappointed. You were critical during the election campaign, and you said that, if your party formed the next government, you would respect the previous government's commitment to double funding for the Canada Council. But that's not at all what you've done.
With regard to the government's decision and the House's agreement that the capital gains deduction credit will be raised to 100 percent, you're suggesting that will represent $300 million. However, I believe it represents $100 million more. I believe there are about 160,000 foundations and charities in the country that benefit from that money. Before suggesting that all those funds will be allocated to the arts, matters should be considered and statistics determined stating which proportion of that amount will indeed be allocated to the arts and how much money will be allocated to large artistic corporations, relative to small ones, which the Canada Council of the Arts supports. But we'll keep this question for another day.
Approximately two weeks ago, the committee unanimously passed a resolution that this committee take part in any review process that you could undertake with regard to the mandate of Radio-Canada or the CBC. I asked you the question in the House, and you seemed to be in agreement.
I'd like to know when your department intends to call on this committee to prepare for that exercise.