Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank all of you for being here. It's an honour to sit on this committee and have the opportunity to hear some very expert opinion on and insight into Canada's 150th and the plans for that and generally on the state of play in terms of Canadian culture right across the country. I want to thank you for that.
We have been debating in the House of Commons, and have raised much concern about, the cutting of the Katimavik program, which is a youth exchange initiative that is essentially about nation-building.
Ms. McKenzie, by the way, I thought the video was excellent and the initiative is excellent. I have travelled across the country, I don't know, maybe 30 times in my life, and I've had the opportunity you are talking about that many young people lack.
I have to say, as a parent of young kids, first of all, that I really have a hard time considering young people as a market that we can capture and keep as long-term consumers of a product, which in this case is tourism.
We have this program, which the government and the Heritage Minister have actually spoken about in the House. The minister has said that it was the easiest program for him to cut, which is really shocking. I'm sure it shocked some of the members opposite that Katimavik would be so easy to cut. That essentially is a program that could be expanded to really honour Canada's 150th, because that program is not about corporate tie-ins. It's not about young people as a market; it's about how we see ourselves as a country. It would seem that if we're doing something for Canada's 150th, it should be about who we are as a country.
When I hear this, about young people as a market, it really concerns me. The language really concerns me, and I think it would concern most parents.
I don't want to get on your case, because I respect the work you do, and I know that for all of us, tourism is very important. But Canada's 150th is an opportunity for us to step beyond the narrow confines of our commercial understanding of what we're doing and take a broader look, which is why we are concerned that, on many different levels, the agenda of Canada's 150th could creep into a more overtly, partisan, political exercise.
You've given us a big document. We were enraptured by the presentation, so I haven't really had a chance to look at it.
Don't you think that's a concern to just look at young people as a market?