Evidence of meeting #35 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was films.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
That leads to my next question.
Do we have a star system in Canada and does it work?
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Mr. Young, I'm sorry, but we have exceeded the seven minutes.
We're now going to move to Monsieur Nantel.
You have the floor for five minutes.
February 25th, 2015 / 4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I'll just check first to see if you will get translation if I speak French. We'll do a test.
Good afternoon; do you have access to simultaneous interpretation, if I speak French? It seems you do not.
I'll speak English, no problem.
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
I speak French, but because I live in Toronto, I don't have opportunities to practise.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Please feel perfectly comfortable, Mr. Bronfman.
My question is for you, Mr. Bronfman.
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
I'm not comfortable enough to speak in French in this type of environment. If I'm ordering a hot dog, I can do it, but not in this environment.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Okay. I think to make it simpler—it's already a little techy here—I'll speak in English.
Mr. Bronfman, I wanted to ask you—
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
May I ask, Mr. Chair, that the minute we took for that not be removed from Mr. Nantel's time?
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Thank you, Mr. Dion.
Mr. Bronfman, there's one question I wanted to ask you. How long has Comweb owned William White? I know you don't own it anymore, but how long have you had it under your company?
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
Comweb has owned William F. White since August 1989, and I still own it. I'm the chairman and CEO of Whites.
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
The company is 52 years old this year. Comweb is 27 years old.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Are you still in Montreal? I remember you had these weird warehouses under the Champlain Bridge route.
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
Well, how can I say this without offending anybody?
We shut down Montreal in 2003 because of corruption. We will not be involved in business unless it is kosher, and malheureusement, à Montréal, it's the wild west. We decided we didn't want to play that game, so we left town.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Wow, that is a strong statement. I was not expecting this, because the last time I went to your place, we went there to rent a camera for a video, and we felt you were very supportive of these young producers.
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
We are. I love Montreal.
I lived in Montreal. I was born there and lived there for 20 years.
It's a beautiful city, beautiful women, great restaurants. But it's a terrible place to do business on the up and up. That's why we decided to shut it off.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
4:25 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
Comweb still owns William F. White, but we do not operate in Montreal. I'm still chairman and CEO of Whites. I still have a job.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I wanted to ask you guys, and potentially the British Columbia people could also answer this, how important or hectic the post-production world of buying and selling off of companies is. I know that in Montreal there have been many changes.
You may have moved away, but Mel Hoppenheim just sold his studios, and I know that very important sound studios for post-production have been bought by Technicolor, which at the time was a film processor, if I'm not mistaken, or they rented cameras.
Please tell me more, because my impression is that this is part of a town's marketability for attracting various film shoots.
4:30 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
I can't really speak for what's been going on in Montreal, because we haven't been there for 12 years. I know that Technicolor and Deluxe both have had Canadian operations for many years. Their head offices are in the United States, but they do operate very much like Canadian companies.
What was your question, sir?
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
First, how important is the post-production chain—audio, special effects, and things like that—
4:30 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
It's extremely important.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
—and is there a lot of buying and selling activity by bigger companies?
4:30 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
Not so much. The barriers to entry in post-production have come down. It's much easier to get involved in post-production if you buy a mixing console and a few items than it is to get involved in a company like Whites, where we have a lot of staff, a lot of bricks and mortar, a lot of capital expenditure.
The consolidation of the post-production industry has been happening for a number of years, but I've seen it slow down for a while. I'm not sure it's finished, but we now have fewer and stronger companies.