Canadian Heritage Committee on April 13th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Madame Lavallée, please.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I had been prepared to speak for seven minutes, but I'll see if I can keep it to five minutes.

First of all, since you don't often appear before the committee, I have a gift for you. Last time we met, I wanted to introduce you to Fred Pellerin, an extremely creative Quebec artist. This young person has helped to bring back the art of storytelling and has created art with the legend of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton. He boasts an amazing French vocabulary and a regional accent so thick you could cut it with a knife. I'd like to present you with a gift of his DVD. I've already viewed it and now I'd like you to view it as well. You will find it very entertaining.

However, the artist won't be receiving any royalties, since I'm giving you a DVD that I've already watched. No doubt you will download it onto your iPod, and no one yet pays royalties for that. Nevertheless, I'd like you to have it. However, I want you to think about this artist who will not be receiving any royalties, even though he is the creative talent behind this effort. The same holds true for the video artists, the photographers and the sound and lighting technicians. They will not be receiving any money either.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Perhaps I should buy the DVD then.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Perhaps, but let me continue. I would in fact be very happy if you purchased a copy, but you can also pay royalties through your iPod. In addition, since this artist has quite a thick, I am also giving you the companion book entitled “Comme une odeur de muscles“ to enjoy. It will allow you to follow along with the DVD. Copyright is not a problem in this case. I have not copied or shared this work. It has most likely been digitized by Google.

Google sent a letter to the Association des éditeurs du Quebec advising them to take legal action if they were not happy about this. I didn't hear you say anything about this state of affairs, Minister, and it saddens me. Artists are saddened as well. Specifically, I think about the publishing community that is forced to do battle with Google on its own, without your support.

I am very happy to present you with this CD. Unfortunately, it also comes with a DVD. I did not even look at it for fear of violating the Copyright Act. Fred Pellerin has also put out a CD of old, remixed French-language songs. One of these songs is entitled “Mommy”. As you can see, the DVD has not been opened. Be careful, because the labels and price tags have not been removed. I want to be sure that I do not violate the Copyright Act. I also want to be sure that this artist gets his due. There is a protective device in place to prevent you from downloading it onto an MP3. I know that for a fact, because I have tried and failed.

You have to understand that when artists feel that they are not protected, they take action to protect themselves. You can try it and get back to me, but it's important to understand why these measures are in place. One of the songs, Mommy—which happens to be the only song in English— is a patriotic song about French that decries the assimilation of French by English. I'm sure that as Minister of Official Languages, you will find it interesting. It is required listening.

I have something else I'd like to say, because there is more to life than gifts, even though they make our host more receptive. I'd like to talk to you about digitization. In your opening remarks, you stated that you want to bring in a digitization strategy. This was also mentioned in the throne speech, but there is no sense of any true intention of devising a real global digitization strategy. You do little things and come up with ideas. You have taken money away from musicians—and that's all they had— and put it into record digitization. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but you cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. I don't have time to say everything I have to say on the subject, but we need a real digitization policy. You cannot become the kit-gadget minister who is only interested in putting forward initiatives of little value, or in tweeting about things that have not been well thought out, that lack inspiration or that are trivial. We want a genuine digitization strategy.

Is my time up?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

One minute.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I have only 30 seconds to put my question. Correct?

I know that you will be given enough time to respond. That is why I'm pushing it a bit.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

The industry committee is conducting a major study of foreign ownership in the telecommunications field. Mention is made of this study in the budget and in the throne speech. We are not seeing you go out either and defend culture in the face of foreign ownership. That is a fact.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Your time is up, and I don't think the minister has any time to answer. This has taken five minutes.

Mr. Angus, please.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I welcome the minister. I have sat with my honourable colleague for a number of years, and she's never given me any gifts.

I would like to ask whether, when you've finished listening, you can lend it to me so I can hear. I don't think that contravenes the Copyright Act, but I'd love to hear it anyway.

I'm pleased to have you here. There are many questions we could ask to try to get clarification. I'm interested, and I was looking through the estimates, because money in the arts sector will go a long way wherever it is placed. I know that certainly the small museums are still reeling from the cuts of a few years ago.

We're still reeling from the loss of our programs for international promotion of the arts, as well as the musical diversity cuts.

Then I see $25 million that has been floating out there for the Canada prize for the arts. I don't really see any timelines on that. I don't really know who is administering the fund. The fact that this is coming has been kicked around for a while, but where is it, who is going to administer it, and how is it going to work?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

It is coming, and the question of who will be administering it will be answered very soon. That sounds like a dodge, but I assure you it's not. We're going to have an announcement very soon on that.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

We've talked to various people in the arts community, and they're concerned because they figure this is going to be a fairly costly prize to administer.

The administration will take a fair amount of work. We're taking $25 million--I don't have a problem with the prize--for what will be essentially international cultural tours, and in the city of Toronto... I think after two years of floating this out there we should know what body it will be, how they're going to be accountable, and what the costs are.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

The government, my department, and I take and understand well all the concerns you have about administration and making sure we're not reinventing the wheel and making sure that the Canada prizes will be done in a way that's efficient, effective, and beneficial to artists. I can assure you of that.

When you see what we're going to be announcing very soon, I think you'll see that all of that has been taken into account. We've established, as you know, prizes in medical excellence. There's the Glenn Gould Prize and all kinds of prizes in arts and culture. There are lessons to be learned from them, and we're not going to be reinventing the wheel. We will keep the administrative costs very low.

This will be a clear, long-term benefit and a real winner for the arts community. I can assure you we're conscious of the dynamics.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you for that answer.

I was a little surprised by your statement that the CBC is receiving record funding. Two weeks ago, it lost 35% of its funding envelope from the Canada Media Fund. When that guarantee was announced, CBC said it would be able to compete because it is first and foremost in prime-time drama and comedy. It didn't mind losing the guarantee, and it expected to be able to compete fairly.

The government has, as you said, increased funding from $300 million to $350 million, but CBC has just found out that it is now going to lose $12.6 million in funding under the Canada Media Fund for this year. That amount represents three half-hour comedy shows, 1.5 one-hour dramas, or 36 one-hour documentaries. Radio-Canada would lose 20 hours of children's programs or 15 documentary programs.

The reason is that the rules aren't in place for administering the money for new prime-time innovative drama and comedy. Specialty networks are still making money off the Canada Media Fund. The private networks are doing fine on that, but CBC has been given the message that it's losing $12.6 million.

What's going on with this fund that it doesn't have the rules in place?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

CBC was told a year ago that it was losing its guarantee envelope. This is nothing new.

If it was surprised by that, I'm surprised that it was surprised.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

No, that's not what I asked.

I said that it had ended, so now it's going to compete.

Guess what? There are no rules in place for prime-time comedy and drama. What's going on here? I thought that was what it was supposed to be. Now it's facing a $12.6 million shortfall, so I asked...

You had a year with your pals at the BDUs to set this up, and we're told that everybody else can get money, but prime-time drama and comedy are just going to have to wait. What took a year when you don't have the regulations in place?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

No, the guidelines are in place. The Canada Media Fund governance is in place, and the Canada Media Fund is established now. The money is on the table, and they're moving forward. They are receiving applications and money is going to be flowing.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

And CBC is losing $12.6 million in funding because the rules are not in place yet for prime-time innovative drama and comedy.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

By the way, this represents less than 0.1% of CBC's overall budget--

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Oh, this represents a major kick. Remember, the last time we were here we were dealing with $171 million that CBC lost because you didn't think it was in their best interest to get bridge financing.

This $12.6 million would represent 20 hours of children's programming on Radio-Canada.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

That is an incredible--

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I think that is an extraordinary amount at this point, given that--

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

With respect, that's an incredible distortion of things. The $171 million shortage has been dealt with in other ways than bridge financing.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Well, certainly, they fired a whole whack of people and cut programming. I'm listening to shows from 1945 on CBC.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Angus, your time is up.