Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, everyone, for coming.
I know the opposition continues to use the word “cuts”, but this is reallocation of taxpayers' money; it's just a reallocation of funds. Nothing has been cut. It's actually been invested. We've actually invested $276 million on top of what there was before. It's $540 million in total. That's a huge investment into arts and culture.
It's interesting that there are a number of groups--I have a whole list who are very pleased with how the government has invested into arts and culture. Magazines Canada said it is delighted with this decision. The Canadian Conference of the Arts said this represents good news for the Canadian arts and culture sector. There's the director of the National Ballet of Canada: “We're really thrilled that there's a strong minister and that there were [two] pages in the budget devoted to the arts, which is a first in my history.”
In the Toronto Star, Mr. Knelman called the $25 million investment for the Canada prizes “a huge breakthrough for the arts”. Opera.ca said that “the federal budget speaks eloquently to the place of culture in Canadian life”.
I have a question for Mr. Péan. Is the fact that we've invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the arts and culture in this country a good thing for the arts sector, really showing how much the government values arts and culture in Canada?