Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am going to continue along the same lines. There are artists like Amy Belling from British Columbia who received $1,300 from the PromArt program so that she could present her short film at a festival in Rotterdam. That is not what I call a grant or assistance that was out of line. She probably used it to pay for her plane ticket so that she could promote her creative efforts and bring honour to her province and her country.
Let us not forget the importance of these programs in the regions. I mentioned the regions of Quebec, regions that I know well. In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, various international festivals, like the guitar festival or the Festival de musique émergente, for example, receive money to bring foreign buyers to Canada to see the products which they can then distribute in their countries.
Let us talk numbers. There was $15,000 to bring foreign buyers to Montreal for the 25th International Festival of Films on Art. We are told that the money was probably badly managed or badly spent. But we can use this exact example to show that, with $15,000, producers of documentaries on art can not only have their work seen, but can also sell them so that they are seen around the world. This is an economic engine and we often forget to say so.
In regions like Saguenay or Abitibi-Témiscaminque, festivals accessed these funds to bring in foreign buyers. The Académie Baroque de Montréal received $10,000 for six concerts in Germany and for a Mozart concert in Milan. Mr. Van Kesteren can count the pages of grants awarded by his government—he got to 12—but I can count my list too. My list has more than 30 pages, full of the names of artists and companies that will not be able to get government assistance to show, sell or promote their creations around the world.
In conclusion, I sincerely hope that we will be able to undertake a thorough study that will allow us to ask meaningful questions of the government. We want to find out why, having been elected on a platform of transparency, their strategic analysis is confidential, why it is secret if it is so valuable, and if there are good reasons for cutting programs. The government should be transparent in bringing forward the facts, so that we can judge for ourselves.
The artistic community and the cultural industry has now been thrust into a period of instability and intolerable vulnerability. If you have made the cuts in order to reallocate, I really have to ask what you are waiting for in order to reassure this community. I hope that this study will provide answers to the many questions that have been asked since this discussion began.
Mr. Chair, I look forward to your suggestion.