Canadian Heritage Committee on April 29th, 2014

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

How am I doing, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You have some time left.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

I'm still not quite following what you mean by an investment in economic development. Can you expand on that a little more. Are you talking of venue, about performance in the actual venue?

[Mark Monahan]

The beauty of most destination music events like our event or the Montreal jazz festival is that we don't have infrastructure. We're not talking about building a light rail. We're talking about building ideas and events that pop up. So the investment required is not the same as when you talk about a $1 billion infrastructure program. An investment of $1 million or $2 million or $3 million for an event can lead to the creation of a new series. We did free outdoor programming for 10 days in the market in Ottawa as part of the marquee tourism events program. These initiatives cost, in some cases, $1 million or $2 million, but created many million dollars in economic benefits.

Really, by using these not-for-profits you can get the greatest benefit, because we have the ability to turn these funds into something immediately. We're not talking about trying to build infrastructure coming online years from now. We can create something in the next 12 months that would have an immediate impact.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Monsieur Nantel.

You have five minutes.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will invite everyone to wear their translation devices. Especially, I know, Mr. Klassen, if I speak French, will you get some translation?

[Greg Klassen]

Yes, I understand. Thank you.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you.

You spoke about FAME and the important role it plays in attracting broad audiences to big events, bringing performances live to communities, and also giving smaller talents the opportunity to be discovered and to be put in the spotlight.

Last week, I attended an event organized by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, MCFR, where a panel was held titled “The Future of Montreal's Festivals: Renewal and International Impact”. So we are on the right topic.

I was the only federal MP at the event. I was approached by the spokesperson for the Major International Events Network, MIEN, which is the Quebec counterpart of FAME. The spokesperson told me that, according to the cumulative sales of the MIEN members, the funding had dropped from 22% to 18%—a decrease attributable to the end of the Marquee Tourism Events Program. In 2010, the federal contribution accounted for 12.4%; today, that contribution is only 4.4%.

Do you see an inconsistency between the emphasis on your events and that withdrawal of federal funding?

Mr. Klassen, Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Monahan, you are all affected by this.

[David Goldstein]

I will got first.

[Greg Klassen]

Go ahead.

[David Goldstein]

This is a matter of balance.

I will begin with an important fact. According to the surveys, Canada is among the most popular destinations for foreign travellers. Festivals are one of the reasons those people decide to come to Canada. We all agree that this is made possible through the investments by the federal government, the provinces and the private sector.

When the Marquee Tourism Events Program ended, the funding was reduced. As Mr. Monahan said, we hope a similar program will be launched. It's important for a program of this type to be part of a comprehensive tourism strategy. The Marquee Tourism Events Program was one of the initiatives under the

stimulus program.

A federal tourism strategy now exists. We want to have a similar program not only for major festivals, but also for all festivals across Canada.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Goldstein.

Mr. Klassen, do you hope the government will move faster when it comes to this?

[Greg Klassen]

I will respond in English.

This is part of what Mr. Goldstein is referring to in terms of product. We know that festivals are a significant portion of the products that we sell. We try to highlight those products across the country, whether they're festivals and events or different kinds of experiences that international travellers can have. We try to highlight the best.

We've packaged them into something called the Signature Experiences Collection, and there are a number of festivals that fit within that collection itself. Then we market that internationally. We don't have the kinds of budgets required to market those particular festivals directly, but we do try to draw attention to Canada as a significant festivals and events style of destination so that we can build up our cultural piece of that triangle I referred to.

So it's extremely important to have the investment dollars to do that, to work in full partnership with the festivals industry as we're doing with FAME. That's very important and a key linchpin to helping us all succeed.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

That's right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Nantel.

Your time is up.

I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today. Thank you for your contribution to our study. It's going to help us. Tourism is a significant portion of that. If you have any further contributions, please send them to us in writing.

On that note, the meeting is adjourned.