Evidence of meeting #152 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was media.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
No, I was asking that we vote on the motion that I duly tabled within the past few weeks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
We're going to go to a vote, which requires us to distribute the terms of the motion. We will ask for it to be distributed right now.
As we're distributing the wording, the floor is now open for anyone who wants to debate this point. I do not know if I see anyone; I've already heard Monsieur Nantel speak to it.
NDP
Liberal
Liberal
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
It is moved:
That the Committee take interest in our cultural industries and in the challenges of the digitization of the economy, and undertake a study on interim measures which could be adopted in the short term to support the Canadian cultural and media system; and that the Committee make recommendations and report its findings to the House before June 1, 2019.
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
It is our practice to deal with these matters when we discuss the work of the committee. I find it completely out of order and we will be voting against this proposal.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I have been very cooperative over the past few weeks. I would remind everyone that this motion has the support of every member of the coalition for culture and media. They all understand very well that a member of Parliament is keen to defend Quebec culture. Honestly, I've been the only one doing so for the past seven years. Every member of this coalition has asked us to study this motion because we have to inform the department of the best practices that are used in other countries.
The cultural industry as a whole is dealing with the challenges of digital technology, but not as much as Quebec is. Quebec's productions have a record audience. They are in serious trouble if the system in place is disrupted by the arrival of new Internet players.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Just as a technical point, the wording of the motion that was distributed may not be the correct wording, so I'm just getting that looked into.
Mr. Blaney.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Madam Chair, we are ready to vote and ask for a recorded division.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
All right. I just want to see if there's any more debate.
Seeing none, we will continue.
(Motion negatived: nays 5; yeas 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Now we can continue.
Mr. Hogg.
Liberal
Gordie Hogg Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Thank you.
A reference was made just a moment ago to the newspapers and the tax credits. You made reference to the panel. What's the status of that? When will the panel be appointed to review the support for the weekly newspapers?
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
They're working on it. I've asked that it be as soon as possible, but again, I'm not involved in this and I don't want to be involved in this.
Liberal
Liberal
Gordie Hogg Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
We had a number of witnesses give testimony with respect to the national day for truth and reconciliation and the National Indigenous Peoples Day. There were particular concerns expressed about the funding that might be available to operationalize that.
Could you give me an update in terms of the follow-through? I think there was some commitment to follow through on that. Could you let us know the status of that, please?
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Absolutely, and thank you for the question, Mr. Hogg.
The budget that was presented a couple of weeks ago provides $10 million over two years for this. This is extremely important. We're not saying that we're going to do it. Normally we would do it, but we're saying that we will provide the money for people who want to celebrate the accomplishments, the history and everything related to indigenous people across the country on June 21—the money will be there—and also on September 30, which is more a day of reflection on residential schools, reflecting about the past and making sure that the past doesn't repeat itself.
Liberal
Gordie Hogg Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Thank you.
I will declare that I have some interest in the discussion with respect to anti-racism, diversity and multiculturalism. I did my doctorate in that area, so unfortunately I have a bit of bias or some thoughts with respect to that. My comments around that would be that I think we probably talk about multiculturalism and diversity as part of the Canadian way, and I think we're saying that wrong, because multiculturalism talks about differences rather than sameness.
My bias would be that I think we should be talking about how, wherever people go in the world, most people basically care about the same things. They care about family, community and getting ahead, whether that's economically, socially or spiritually. I think it's great that in Canada we can celebrate that sameness from a number of different traditions, beliefs and religions.
Can you tell me a bit about the strategies that you look at, going ahead, in terms of how we deal with multiculturalism and diversity, particularly with anti-racism and some of the radicalization that occurs with that? Do we have some strategies around that?
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
We do, and thank you very much for that question. It's something that is a priority, not only for me but for all of us, for the government and the people in the department. If you will allow me, I will concentrate for just a couple of minutes on fighting racism.
As you know, there was an anti-racism strategy in the past that was cut by the previous government. We thought that it was necessary to have one again. Why? It's because we feel that there is more racism, discrimination, than before. Social media carries a lot of things that shouldn't be there. We need to stop that. We need to fight racism. Fighting racism is not something that you do just like that. It's short-term, mid-term and long-term, but you have to start somewhere, and this is what we're doing.
To build a strategy, we've had 22 sessions across the country in the last few months. I participated in the majority of them. My parliamentary secretaries were there, and there were many MPs and ministers. There were 600 participants from 400 different groups. We were in your province a couple of times.
This allowed us to build this national anti-racism strategy, for which we got $45 million in the budget, which is pretty much $15 million a year for three years. Now, I will be able.... I'm not in a position now to share all the details of the strategy, but I can tell you that fighting racism in all its forms, fighting systemic racism, needs different types of actions, and this is what the strategy will include.
It will also include—I can mention it because it was in the budget—a secretariat that will be in Heritage and will coordinate everything that is done across government. More than “coordinate”, the word I always use and want to use is “leadership”. We want to be very proactive on this. We want to show leadership and make sure that all departments are complying and things are changing, because we have to do it for our country and for our children and our grandchildren.
I'm very proud of all the work that brought us here, and I'm really looking forward to presenting the national anti-racism strategy.