Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 29th, 2016

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

That's a very good answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Samson.

We are going to a second round, but given the time constraints we're going to do two five-minute rounds and the NDP will get a three-minute round.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Those are the rules we agreed to at the very beginning, when we do not have time. I'm sorry.

Mr. Waugh.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Thank you.

Thank you for the Canada 150 pin that you handed out, because in my riding of Saskatoon—Grasswood, they want a commemorative pin recognizing Canada's 150th year of Confederation. Where is it? We had it in 1867. We had it in 1927. We it had our centennial year, in 1967, and we brought it back again in 1992. This pin, this commemorative medal, recognizes distinguished Canadians. We're not doing that, and I'm wondering why you and your government will not do this for the 150th commemoration of Confederation.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

We're working on an important ambassador program right now, which will celebrate, through different ways, different gestures, and also merchandise the importance of community leadership. This ambassador program will be based on having great ambassadors. Some have already been announced: Julie Payette, the astronaut; Art McDonald, the Nobel Prize in Physics winner; Kardinal Offishall, an important musician; and many other role models and ambassadors that are known here in Canada, in all regions, and also internationally. These names will be rolled out over the next few weeks.

We're partnering with the Community Foundations of Canada also, who have developed a community leadership program. Also, we'll have a program called friends of Canada 150, which will be based on supporting anybody who wants to do volunteerism, for example, in the context of Canada 150.

Also, coming from Saskatoon, Kevin, rather than doing the celebrations for Canada 150 only in Ottawa, I decided, with my team, to celebrate in 19 cities, and that includes Regina and Saskatoon.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

We've given money to the City of Saskatoon and to Regina to organize a December 31 launch. That will be the same for Canada Day, and that will be the same also for three important celebrations just before Canada Day, namely, National Aboriginal Day, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, and also Multiculturalism Day.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I'm running out of time, so I'm going to share it with my friend here, the Honourable Ed Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak.

I'm going to return to CBC.

My colleague, Mr. Waugh, mentioned the very surprise announcement by the CBC yesterday that they're seeking another $400 million of support from taxpayers. Last year, your government gave CBC $600 million. That's a 60% increase in their funding. Now we find out that CBC wants another $400 million, which effectively doubles, by $1 billion, the amount of funding that CBC receives every year. A lot of Canadians will be concerned about that kind of dramatic increase in funding for our public broadcaster.

Can you provide this committee assurances that you will reject the latest request from the CBC?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

First of all, I just want to make sure that we agree. The reinvestment is $675 million over a period of five years. It's $75 million this year and $150 million over the next four years, so it's not an increase of 60%. It's to return to the budget level that CBC/Radio-Canada had before the important cuts were done.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

With respect, Minister, the amount of funding you announced last year over the next five years is going to increase the funding for CBC by 60% of its current budget. The current budget is somewhere around $1 billion. You're adding another $600 million.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I don't want to give you a lesson in terms of how to calculate, but if you take into account that it's a budget for five years, at $1 billion per year it's $5 billion, and if you're investing $675 million, that's far from 60%.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

No, with respect—

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I understand that there has been an important reinvestment, and we're really proud of that reinvestment.

But if I may answer your question in particular regarding what the CBC presented, the CBC is independent and can present what they want when it comes to their own point of view of what to do when possibly studying the scenario of going ad-free. They decided that it had a cost and they presented to the population what that cost would be.

Now it's up to my department to study their report, which was presented yesterday. We will do that when studying all the points of view, not only of CBC but also of different media outlets, journalists, groups, and various stakeholders. I won't prejudge anything at this point, because it's important that we look at and give attention to all the points of view of everybody who has participated in this important consultation.

This is the first time in 30 years that we will have done this, so I want to make sure that we do it well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Minister.

Your time is up, Mr. Fast.

Ms. Dabrusin, you have five minutes.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Minister, for coming to speak to us today.

It gives me an opportunity to raise an issue that has been flagged in my community quite a bit. My community is home to many people who work in the creative industry, particularly film and television. There was a lot of concern expressed about the CRTC decision that came out at the end of August, which reduced the Canadian content points from eight to six for access to CIPF funds.

Because this is something that's causing quite a bit of concern in my community, my question for you is this. What is the government doing to promote Canadian content creators?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I understand the anguish that lots of people in the industry—Canadians, of course—felt when that decision came about. I've said clearly that when it comes to our own public funding, we had the clear expectation that this public funding would go to Canadian content creators. My position hasn't changed.

As mentioned, we are looking into the entire system to understand what the impacts are of these decisions, but more than that, how to support and enhance and export Canadian content.

I think we're extremely strong in Canada. As I have mentioned many times, we are the third biggest producer of video games in the world and the third biggest exporter of musical talent in the world. The film and television industry generated seven billion dollars' worth of revenue in 2014, and $3 billion of it was exported. We're nearly number one when it comes to virtual reality, because of the work of the NFB.

Because of all these strengths, I am very confident that we can support Canadian content creators, but more than that, have a much more entrepreneurial approach and be able to enhance risk-taking, and that will help in general the ecosystem to have a bigger piece of the international market pie.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

We mentioned briefly the local media study that we've been working on, but we also looked at museums for a period of time. In some of the conversations I've had with people working in the museums, the importance for museums of the Young Canada Works program has come up.

I notice that you mentioned in your opening comments that $1.9 million will be going to the Young Canada Works program. Could you expand on exactly what it is, what we are doing with that program, and what our plans are for the next year?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Certainly we're working hard to develop an even better response. You have to understand that the Young Canada Works program didn't support the heritage sector in the past, so this is good news. Also, it's supporting jobs for official language minorities, because part of it, $300,000, is for green jobs, but for official language minority groups. There are 140 more internships in the heritage sector; concretely that's 140 young people who are gathering important, relevant, and also paid experience that will follow them through their entire career path.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

That's wonderful.

I don't have very much time left. I wanted also to thank you. You mentioned in your opening comments the $1 million in funding for the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Being from Toronto, I know what an important role the Harbourfront Centre plays in our community, so thank you for that. That's an important part.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

My pleasure.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I saw that Telefilm now has a policy to promote greater gender equity in its film production. I was wondering if you could comment, in 20 seconds maybe, on that.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Telefilm and the NFB have both decided to embrace the importance of gender parity. They've decided independently to develop specific programs.

I'm very happy with the leadership of the two CEOs, Claude and Carolle, on this important file.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Nantel, you have three minutes, please.