Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 25th, 2014

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

It's getting a bit late, don't you think? As managers, you're going to have to work at a breakneck pace if the government continues to drag its feet.

[Graham Flack]

I worked under you when you were a minister. So you know what we, as public servants, are capable of.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Yes.

[Graham Flack]

We do our best. I have no doubt that the 2017 celebrations will be incredible.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

I certainly hope so, Mr. Deputy Minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

We will now move to Mr. Hillyer for seven minutes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you for coming today. I wanted to ask you about the request for a new transfer for aboriginal language rights. It's the transfer from vote 1b to vote 5b. I just want to know why this is being requested. I assume as it's a transfer it's not going to be new money. Could you clarify that and let us know what's trying to be accomplished with this.

[Graham Flack]

This is one of those cases where a funding renewal is announced in the budget. It's too late to appear in mains so this is kind of a catch-up for that. So you're right, this is not incremental to the money we have spent in the past, but it didn't appear in the mains because it was budget 2014 that confirmed these resources going forward for what is for us a very important program. This is the key program in Canada that supports aboriginal languages, including some languages that are very vulnerable, on the verge of extinction. The technical effect of this, and I'll just turn to Andrew to confirm that, is to allow us to continue funding at that level. It appears in supplementary estimates because when you had mains we did not yet have confirmation from the budget that we would have this fund.

[Andrew Francis, Chief Financial Officer, Department of Canadian Heritage]

It's a commitment for two fiscal years so this will be built into the mains for next year. The primary priority of this is to give language support for learning to children and youth, and to pass on the languages to future generations. I'll just correct you quickly in terms of it's not a transfer between votes. This is an appropriation to vote 1 and an appropriation to vote 5, which is our transfer payments to communities.

[Graham Flack]

The bulk of this will be transfers to community, but there is a small operating component, which appears in vote 1.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Could you give us some details on the initiative about the request for $3 million for Hockey Canada's 100th anniversary celebrations?

[Graham Flack]

As a hockey player, I think Patrick will be thrilled to give you this one.

[Patrick Borbey]

Thank you. I'm told that I'm not supposed to talk about the Habs because there are some Bruins fans in the room.

Hockey Canada will be celebrating its 100th anniversary, so there will be a number of events that will take place. They are actually already taking place, and this includes a travel exhibition, a school program, the production of a special patch for hockey jerseys, a gala and a concert, and various other activities.

One of the main activities of the celebration is centred around the travelling exhibition, which is touring communities across Canada. The exhibition is visiting local hockey tournaments, along with the Canadian Junior Hockey League events, and National Hockey League events as well. It's also travelling to some of Canada's biggest and most successful festivals.

By the end of the tour, we expect that one million Canadians will have taken part and will have seen the centennial caravan exhibition. I am told that, to date, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Sherbrooke, Winnipeg, and St. John's have already participated in this wonderful event, and many, many more communities will participate over the next few months.

Thank you.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

That's all for me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

We're going to move to the five-minute round now.

We're going to go to Ms. Mathyssen for five minutes.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for being here.

I want to go briefly back to the CBC and the issue of our public broadcaster. I wonder whether other countries support their public broadcasters, and at what level. How do they compare to our support of CBC?

[Graham Flack]

Different countries have different models for support, including the source of financing. I lived in the U.K. for two years. They actually collect a televison tax. They literally had folks who would go around and detect whether you had a television, and then you would have to pay a fee every year. So some do it through general appropriations, and others through other mechanisms. Some fund the content creation, and then fund the broadcaster separately.

We didn't bring the international comparisons, but my experience and the information I've read is that comparisons are tricky. The sources of support for the broadcasters are done differently in different jurisdictions. Many countries don't have the equivalent of, let's say, the Canada Media Fund, which is a content-creation fund that isn't specific to a network.

In terms of overall appropriations, which I think is what your question was, Canada is not among the highest in terms of the appropriations that it provides, but the models are very different in different countries.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

There has been some discussion about this $1.1 billion that the CBC receives, but is it not true that private broadcasters have access to popular programming that boosts their revenues, and that is not available to CBC? Isn't there a compensation for the private broadcasters?

[Graham Flack]

If you're talking about re-broadcast of American shows, for example, I'm not aware of a statutory prohibition on the CBC using some American shows in their re-broadcast to raise revenues.

All Canadian broadcasters do have access, whether the CBC or not, to the competitive Canada Media Fund, which is a source of creation for Canadian content, whether it's in the private broadcasters or not.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

So there is some balancing out there.

My next question has to do with the next universal exposition, in Milan, in 2015. I wonder whether Canada is participating.

[Graham Flack]

Is this the Venice Biennale or the Milan?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Milan.

[Graham Flack]

Which exhibition is that?

[A Voice]

The world expo.