Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for setting aside the time to come and speak with the committee today.
I'm sure you're all aware--this isn't going to surprise anyone--that governments have finite amounts of money. There is only so much to spend, and some of the decisions that have to be made involve asking where the best area is to spend money. Where are you going to get the most results with the money you have, the tax dollars that Canadians have entrusted us with?
One of the things that we have decided is a priority for our government is investment in arts and culture. In fact, the department has seen--by percentage, I'm certain--some of the largest increases of any department that we've actually allocated funds to.
Now I want to go back to a question by Mr. Rodriguez and I want to get some response to it. I notice, Mr. MacDuff, your company was incorporated in 1975, so you've been around for quite some time. In 1992--I'm reading from the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia--there was a report presented by the Standing Committee on Communications and Culture that stated that funding in the cultural sector had failed to keep pace with inflation.
Did you take part in that study at that time, Mr. MacDuff? Were you a witness at that? Do you recall?
You don't recall? Okay, that's fine. The only thing I'm getting at is that Mr. Rodriguez keeps asking folks if they were consulted before there was a cut. Well, in 1992, there was a report that came forward that said that funding in the cultural sector hadn't kept pace with inflation. But then in 1995, in the Liberals' budget, they cut funding across the board to arts and culture. Infrastructure programs were cut by 44%; multiculturalism projects were cut by 71%; and transfers to provinces were cut by 40%. They did all of that without consulting any arts groups. Now they would argue that they made those decisions because they were faced with tough circumstances, and that may very well be; I wasn't elected in 1995. But I'll tell you that I find it a little bit surprising to ask people whether or not they were notified when I know for a fact that when these massive cuts occurred under the Liberal government, nobody was consulted.
Now, Ms. White, you talk about an increase to the Canada Council. Are you aware that prior to 2006, the Canada Council's total budget was $100 million?