Evidence of meeting #21 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was history.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I'm sorry. Who brought that motion forward? Was that an NDP motion?
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
And I believe the museum study was brought forward by Madame Boutin-Sweet.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Right.
We are scheduled to have eight days of study on Canada's entertainment software industry, which takes us to the March recess, after which we're working on the committee's review of national protocol procedures.
That's the agenda until the end of March. It's been distributed.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I had discussed this particular motion with Mr. Simms and with Mr. Benskin in advance of the respecting-the-flag bill arriving at this committee. I know that this motion—or a fairly similar motion to this, if I am correct—was tabled by Mr. Simms, that we study over-the-top....
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I had been under the impression that we had some form of agreement to delay this particular study until a new chair of the CRTC was in place. I thought that was the agreement among myself and the two critics. While we're not opposed to a study of this, I think it would be in our best interests as a committee to wait until the CRTC actually has a chair in place, so that he or she could be called as a witness. For that reason, I think this motion, at this time, is a bit premature.
We are prepared to vote and we will be voting against this motion at this time.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
That's all fine and dandy. The only unfortunate thing is that the incoming CRTC chair is not going to have the information and the background on the previous discussions on over-the-top services. Even the interim chair has a little more insight to all of that. I'm not really sure what kind of advantage it would be to wait until there's a new chair, because the new chair will then have to catch up, and will most probably catch up from the people who we can call right now as witnesses.
As far as the discussion is concerned, I would like to add my voice in support of this, and also in terms of the issues surrounding Canadian content contributions of over-the-top services to the CMF, which they're not obligated to do right now. They're not obligated to abide by any of the existing Canadian content regulations. So this is something that I would add to that discussion at this point.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I want to add that they also don't charge taxes to their customers, which is amazing.
I also want to comment about the general way we see the calendar. Ideally—and I admit this frankly—if there were any chance
stay flexible to be able to deal with urgent issues would be a good idea. For instance, if everyone agrees that the “over-the-top services” are urgent, why not include them in the agenda?
This is what concerns me about Canada's 150th. I would like it if there were regular meetings over the next four years, even if we space them out a fair bit.
For instance, in this case, not dealing with theses “over-the-top-services” before so many weeks have gone by seems to me somewhat disconnected from the urgency of the matter.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
On that note, Mr. Nantel, we only have a few minutes left, if there is any other committee business we want to discuss, other than this motion. I note that there are eight days of study coming up very shortly on Canada's entertainment software industry, which is not related to our study on Canada 150, to your point.
Is there any other discussion on this motion?
Mr. Cash.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
I have one point about the fact that there is an interim CRTC commissioner. The outgoing commissioner can be a witness as well. There's a lot of expertise there. There's a big body of knowledge and wisdom we can hear from and that can help advise and facilitate the incoming commissioner's work.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Is there any other discussion on the motion?
(Motion negatived) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
Is there any other discussion on committee business?
Conservative
Conservative
