Evidence of meeting #157 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 technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
When you talk about the technology, you see, the technology is on the other side. My granddaughter, at 14, buys her tickets online. She's in the tech world. That's the other side. We have a generation who very much lives in this ticket buying world.
How do we deal with that? This is where they are. I don't know how you compete with the tech world to control this.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
It's really tough, but if we as government are not there to protect the rights of the consumer in every potential opportunity that exists, what are we there for?
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
Yes. Okay, well—
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
In all seriousness, there's a responsibility to protect consumers here and you know—
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
If it's tomatoes I'm going with, the right for milk and bread.... I'm with you, but this is optional.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
It is. It is totally optional but culture contributes so much to the fabric of who we are as Canadians.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Yes. Some people here on the committee heard me say it. Garth Brooks fixed this problem. I'm not a Garth Brooks fan but I know he knew it. He did six concerts in Calgary, six concerts in Edmonton and it destroyed that secondary market. He did it in Minneapolis and he did it in a couple of other places. He fixed it as a performer, but he was a powerhouse who could do that.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
Yes, you're right. There are solutions out there, but this whole story began with me and stemmed from the Tragically Hip concert because there was a limited time frame to that man's life.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
I just have one comment.
I think the root of the problem in a lot of instances is the promoters. As another example, we had a premium CHL game at Harbour Station, Saint John. So, call it 6,000 seats. We had the event. We felt great about the event. The CHL said to us, “You're only selling 5,000 of those seats.” We said, “What do you mean, 5,000? Where are the other 1,000?” They said, “We're holding those.” We asked, “What are you doing with them? They said to us,“None of your business. Do you want the event or not?”
I would hazard a guess and bet you that the promoters themselves who controlled The Tragically Hip concert in that arena, if you dig in, held a ton of those tickets back. Number one, it creates a false market.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
Yes.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Number two, it allows them the flexibility to deal with the secondary sellers that they owe favours to, that they deal with.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
Yes.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
And then what's most interesting is that in that instance with us at Harbour Station, the promoter at the last minute released a whole bunch of tickets and then there was chaos. There were people who were upset, who overbought. There were tickets back on the market.
One of the places we want to drill down is the promoters of these vents, whether it's hockey or music. That's where a lot of the problem lies.
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
I do go into that a bit in some of the details later in this report. I have a lot of other information. I've done a lot of work on this file and if you ever need me to come back or if you have specific questions—
Former Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, As an Individual
I did submit this, but if you have other questions, I can go into more detail at any time.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Thank you. I do believe that there was a request. Is the Waterson report publicly available?
