Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will introduce the three motions one after the other, beginning with the first, on behalf of Ms. Lavallée, of course. I cannot express myself as passionately as she, as I am sure you can appreciate. Nevertheless, I will do my best.
With respect to the first motion, Deputy Minister Richard Dicerni told us at the time that the program had run out of funding, and that was why certain festivals did not receive the money they were expecting. Some major festivals did not get the funds they anticipated, namely the FrancoFolies de Montréal and the Toronto Pride festival, both of which met all the program requirements, in our view.
A quick examination revealed that the minister had added some criteria after the fact, criteria that were not initially included in the program requirements. For instance, he decided that there could be no more than two major events or major festivals per city, which was not the case in the beginning.
We also noticed that $8 million from the marquee tourism events program went to the Canadian Tourism Commission, which, as we all know, is already largely funded.
Let us consider the situation of the FrancoFolies festival, for example. We want to show that the festival's application not only met the eligibility requirements of the program, but also exceeded them. The event had to attract 250,000 participants, but in 2009, the FrancoFolies festival had just over 823,000 participants. Tourists had to make up at least 10% of participants, and in the case of the FrancoFolies festival, tourists accounted for 21% of its 823,000 participants. The festival had to be in operation for at least 3 years, and the FrancoFolies festival has been around for 22. The festival had to offer 3 days of programming, and the FrancoFolies festival offered 10. The festival had to employ a marketing strategy and offer package deals, things the FrancoFolies festival has been doing since the very beginning. Applications had to be in the mail by January 8, and the FrancoFolies festival submitted its application even earlier. The FrancoFolies festival was asking for just $3 million in funding, when it could have requested more.
On the flip side, however, the Canadian Tourism Commission obtained $8 million. Why did it need that money, when it was already receiving funding from other departments? What criteria did the Canadian Tourism Commission meet that the FrancoFolies festival did not? We want to know.
We believe that public money was moved around, so to speak. That is why we want to get to the bottom of this and hear from the minister or, at the very least, one of his representatives.