Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Angus.

Mr. Del Mastro.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Thank you very much.

Just as a matter of correcting the record--I guess this is what happens when the NDP loses a byelection--what I was indicating to the witnesses at the time, just for the benefit of the witnesses who are here today, was that.... I indicated to them that this was in no way government policy, but was asking them for their opinion.

I too have met with and heard from people who come into my office regularly, and from artists, that if we had more funding for strictly content, if we had more money behind content, then Canada could in fact compete with any industry in the world, including Hollywood. We've seen those types of productions in Canada.

Perhaps, as a matter of fact, while you're here, maybe you could talk a little bit about the Canada Media Fund--anything you might be hearing about the revamp of the Canada Media Fund, how it's received--and maybe the various film tax credits and so forth that we're extending and how those are received by the sector. Maybe you could just talk about how content is creating jobs and driving an economy in Canada.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

Certainly the funding model we use has a number of tools in the toolkit. Sometimes they're institutions, whether it's Telefilm or Canada Council. Sometimes it's tax credits, as we do for the audiovisual, television and film sector, as well as direct subsidy programs.

The CMF--the old Canadian television fund, which got merged with the Canada New Media Fund--has been quite a success. Even just last week I was meeting with some folks from the Canada Media Fund, and they were telling me that it has become such a success that organizations from across the world are now coming to see how we've done this, not dissimilar to the period in the seventies and eighties when our broadcasting model ended up being a model across the world on how you support indigenous productions.

So for the CMF, the first priority was getting governance right. There had been some concerns raised by the Auditor General that perhaps there were perceptions of conflict of interest, and so we changed that. But more importantly from a policy perspective, the new CMF--as its name change suggests, away from television fund--tries to support the creation of content on all platforms, because that's where Canadians are. They want their content when they want it, where they want it, on the platform they want it.

So we are nudging the industry along through the subsidy program, and it has become a hallmark around the world.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

We're leveraging quite a bit of private sector support for these programs, aren't we? In fact it's substantially more than the government is putting in.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

The government part of the funding is about $1.34 million, and the total fund is about $350 million. But even that has a leverage of 1:3, because beyond the amount in the fund, the private sector broadcasters are there as well.

So you can imagine the number of channels we have, both private and public. Through independent producers, they all benefit. Or even in-house productions, they all benefit from this fund. So it's actually key to the entire audiovisual industry.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Globally the demand for content is growing and growing. I just see it as such an opportunity for Canadian talent to be able to access large markets, especially considering our cultural diversity. I really think there's such an opportunity for Canada.

Mr. Wallace, you talked briefly about the government's 2010 budget and the fact that we are moving back to a balanced fiscal position in Canada. Can you confirm that the department is in fact doing its part as per the 2010 budget to control its rate of growth, its spending, to allow us to get back to balance?

[Stephen Wallace]

Yes, I can, and I would say in particular that what we've been looking at is our administrative budget, not our program budget. We've undertaken a number of measures that are strict cost-cutting, but we've also actually been looking at the way we do business, seeing whether or not there were ways in which you could move from having 10 different signatures on a particular program proposal, to taking a look at who's responsible, who's accountable, and streamlining the process.

So what we're trying to do on this one is see whether or not the responsible management of public funds response can be also an opportunity to just get the way our operations work onto a different plane. I think we've made a number of steps over the course of the last six months to do so.

I had mentioned at the outset that we had published our service standards over the course of this year on the program delivery. What we're looking at here is actually being able to meet or exceed our program delivery standards while undertaking cost containment. I think that mix, of just simply looking at efficiencies but also new ways of doing business, is going to get us there.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

There have been a lot fewer calls this year with the new processes with respect to approval times. Is that something you're finding as well? Has our turnaround time on applications improved in recent years?

[Stephen Wallace]

Yes, I think the publication of service standards is one element of this one. I mentioned at the outset that we have 7,500 grants and contributions every single year. Well, if you don't spread them out over a period of time, and you concentrate them all into a couple of the big peak periods, of course you're going to run into difficulties.

So we've done a number of things like that to spread them out--to give people good notice on programs--and I think we're starting to see some good results.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Mr. Del Mastro.

Madam Crombie.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to pursue Mr. Angus' line of questioning, Mr. Wallace. I'm new to this, and if you wouldn't mind I'd like to go back to the CBC.

Let me open by saying that I think arts and culture are great economic generators, so I'm never in favour when arts and culture are cut back. Let me put that on the table up front.

[An hon. member]

Hear, hear.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Yes, hear hear.

On the votes that are appropriated, $60 million will go toward program enhancement offered on TV, radio, and other platforms. Can you discuss where this $60 million will go? Will it go toward the operating budget, or not specifically? It will go toward strengthening and enhancing programming, so what kind? Do we know how that will be allocated?

[Stephen Wallace]

I can say first of all that this is a CBC decision on how it allocates its programming. For purposes of illustration, I can tell you how the CBC has allocated this in the past.

If you take a look at the last exercise, we had a split that looked like the following: $27 million to English television services; $18 million to French television services; $5 million to English radio services; $5 million to French radio services; and then $5 million to other programming initiatives, such as cross-cultural programming and new media initiatives. That's the kind of split the CBC has been using.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Okay, but it's not going to be $60 million, it's going to be $46 million, because we're taking out the $13.7 million, right?

[Stephen Wallace]

That's exactly correct.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

What happens to that $13.7 million? Because it had been allocated initially--

[Stephen Wallace]

That's up to the CBC.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

So we don't know what they will do with it? Do we have any indication from them, from their strategic report?

[Stephen Wallace]

That's a good question to put to the CBC.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

It could be as many as 140 full-time jobs. So don't we know what will be sacrificed?

[Stephen Wallace]

The CBC makes its own decisions on this, and I think they would be in the best position to answer.

[Bonnie Crombie, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Okay.

The overall department budget shows $1.6 million in transfers, and $31.7 million in adjustments and appropriations. What do they specifically speak to?

This is on page 112, if that's helpful to you.

[Stephen Wallace]

I'll ask Tom to backfill here, but the lower figure is the clawback of the salary increase that had been put into the budget of Canadian Heritage in 2009-10. Subsequently, with budget 2010's decision to freeze the salary budget and not cover this through additional appropriations, the transfer of $1.67 million is being taken out of the budget of Canadian Heritage.

On the other side of the ledger, the additional $30-odd million worth of programs are ones for which I've given a number of highlights. There are some very specific investments in sport; some investments with respect to the Governor General's foundation; and a couple of other programs along the way that we'd be happy to provide details on.

Maybe I can turn to Tom to backfill on that.

[Tom Scrimger]

Mr. Wallace has certainly given you an indication of the increase in funding that the program has been dealing with--that dealt with sport, and the granting to the Michaëlle Jean Foundation--which has been offset by the savings indicated through budget 2010.

The department also transferred to other federal entities about $1.7 million to pursue various activities, including research into health and social services for French-speaking minority communities; to support for the Prairie Scene festival, which Mr. Wallace mentioned earlier, at the National Arts Centre. Money was transferred to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for research related to sport participation in Canada, given Sport Canada's double mandate of high performance and sport participation.

Last, and certainly not least, $1 million was given to the Library and Archives Canada to provide Canadians with continued access to the Canadian Biography Online.