Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Minister.

Monsieur Nantel.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You have every right to be proud of what you are doing in China. I agree with you that the film La Guerre des tuques is a success we have not heard enough about.

You said earlier that you were proud of taking these steps. I agree that you were right to want to seize such an opportunity, which comes around every 30 years. I also want to remind you of your wish to add geolocation to various music management systems. That is a very good idea.

That's a good start, but, honestly, I doubt—like many people—that you would have the freedom to act. I don't need to tell you how much people in Quebec are scratching their heads trying to figure out how an agreement with Netflix can be seen as cultural policy. I have two questions for you on that topic.

You said that you were trying to conclude with other digital platform providers the same type of agreement as the one concluded with Netflix. Are you negotiating with other digital platform providers? If so, is Spotify one of them?

As far as I know, you have still not responded to Quebec's minister of culture. He has been asking for your help for over a month now, and he has still not received any news from you.

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

I understand the concerns of the francophone community and the Quebec cultural sector. I had an opportunity to meet with people from the Coalition pour la culture et les médias, the UDA, the ADISQ and so on. We agreed to work on our reform plan and figure out how we could revise the Copyright Act together.

We really need to improve equity for our creators, especially in terms of compensation for our artists. We agreed to work together on modernizing the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act.

In addition, under section 15 of the Copyright Act, the CRTC is working on determining what the new business models are, how Canadians are accessing content, which stakeholders are participating in the system or can benefit from it, and how we can ensure to support the creation, production and distribution of content in this digital era.

Once we have received the CRTC's report, we could work on modernization. That is a huge project, which we are proud to have undertaken because it is important. That is the only way to give ourselves, as government, levers and the tools needed to protect and promote our culture in a digital era.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

You have 34 seconds left to tell me why you have still not responded to Quebec's minister of culture.

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

As my colleague already mentioned, I am responsible for the country's cultural policies. Issues related to tax policies are not the responsibility of the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

However, Minister, those are your stakeholders.

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

That said, I am proud of the fact that we have managed to obtain a guarantee for the next five years. I remind you that we have very few legislative and regulatory levers to obtain funding for digital platforms. I know that there are concerns, but this is a five-year agreement, and we have the sovereignty we need, as a government, to amend our laws in order to strengthen our culture on our platforms.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

The coalition made an exceptional collective effort when it asked you to do what was needed for foreign platforms to be taxed, so please pass that on to Minister Morneau.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I do think, Mr. Nantel and Madam Minister, we have completed this.

I thank you for coming, Minister.

I would like to thank all of our members for being fully engaged.

The meeting is adjourned.