Who would have imagined ten years ago that one could access, online, a music store and legitimately download thousands of songs to a device so small you can clip it to your shirt collar, or read your daily newspaper on your cellphone, or access a program online that you may have missed when it was originally broadcast on traditional television?
The digital media innovations we have witnessed over the last decade are quite impressive, to say the least. And if you consider Moore's law, I think it's safe to say that ten years from now digital media will evolve to a point that is unimaginable today.
Indeed, in the not too distant future, a country's very prosperity and social vibrancy could very well be determined by its ongoing capacity to innovate and exploit the opportunities of the digital age. To be a globally competitive leader could mean a better standard of living for all Canadians; to fall behind could also mean a marked degree of uncertainty.
We believe that Canada can, and must, be a world leader in the digital age. All stakeholders owe it to the next generation of Canadians to work together to ensure that we do in fact succeed at being at the top of our international competitive game.
We think putting in place a national digital media strategy is a key element in the pursuit of this important goal. A number of other countries, like Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and France, have already done so. We must not fall further behind.
This national digital strategy must position Canada for both economic and cultural prosperity in the 21st century. It should seek to formalize key objectives and be supported by interconnected policies, strategies, and action plans, and it should span the public and private sectors.
To be successful, we believe this strategy needs to have four key underpinning objectives.
The first is to ensure that Canada possesses a broadband infrastructure that is second to none in the world. While perhaps simple in concept, we are not blind to the fact that there are many forces at play or the inherent cost of achieving and maintaining this objective. This goal is the modern-day equivalent of building the transcontinental railway or the Trans-Canada Highway.
As a second objective, we must guarantee that Canadians control this infrastructure that we build. While there is clearly a need to attract foreign private investment in the building of our broadband capacity, we do not believe the course of Canada's economic or cultural future should be charted by foreign interests.
Third, basic access should be a right. We believe that all Canadians should have an opportunity to participate in the digital age. There should be no geographic, economic, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or even knowledge-based barriers to participating in the digital age. One of Canada's strengths has long been its diversity; ensuring that all Canadians can participate in the digital age will help promote and celebrate that diversity.
And lastly, our fourth objective is in many ways the most important, in our view. This objective relates to ensuring that professional content created by Canadians has priority on our broadband networks.
A national digital media strategy must clearly recognize that our broadband infrastructure is a key vehicle for achieving both economic and cultural goals. Few people ever question the potential of this broadband infrastructure to contribute to Canada's economic future, but the cultural sector is a very key component in that economy and certainly in the economy of tomorrow.
A 2008 report entitled Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada’s Creative Economy, which was done by the Conference Board of Canada in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage, valued the cultural sector's economic footprint to be $84.6 billion in 2007, or roughly 7.4% of Canada's total real GDP. It contributed 1.1 million jobs to the economy. This is significant, to say the least.
In our view, broadband infrastructure should be recognized as a public service that is essential to the maintenance and enhancement of Canada's national identity and cultural sovereignty.
We also believe that each element of the system should contribute, in an appropriate manner, to the creation and presentation of professional Canadian content. To ensure we continue to promote diversity in this country, we also believe that a large majority of that content should be provided by the independent sector.
I will now pass the floor back to my colleague John, who will address some of the specific questions you asked in your terms of reference.