I am also in favour of inviting representatives from the Francofolies de Montréal festival to appear before the committee.
Mr. Simms' amendment is an excellent idea. In the first motion, we could replace the names of the two festivals with the wording “various events”.
Allow me to read the motion: “That, given the significance of these cultural events, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage condemns the harsh manner in which Industry Canada cancelled its financial assistance to various events, and the Committee recommends that the government reinstate funding to these events immediately.”
I could have added “[...] given the $12 million surplus”. But since I do not want to complicate matters, we will stick with those two minor amendments to the first motion.
I would like to respond to what Mr. Del Mastro said earlier. He said it was not true that $12 million had not been spent. Unfortunately, when I add $48,600,886 and $39,184,246, I get roughly $87,800,000, in other words, approximately $12 million was not spent. According to a departmental news release last year, there was indeed $100 million in funding.