Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2017

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

This is a unanimous report: all parties agreed. We believe that the commissioner should have coercive powers.

Do you plan to bring back the Official Languages Secretariat under the Privy Council Office, within the Prime Minister's Office, to ensure that this isn't your department, but a separate body of the Privy Council that requires all other departments to properly follow the Official Languages Act?

Currently, other departments don't listen to your department.

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

Certainly we inherited a system that had been developed by the previous government, and it is now up to us to complete the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Allow the minister to answer.

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

Your questions are quite relevant, dear colleague. I would like to assure you that we are working on developing a very good action plan for official languages. I will have the opportunity to present it to you in the coming weeks or months.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Julie Dzerowicz, you have three minutes.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I offer a huge welcome to you, Minister, and a warm welcome to Ms. Roy and Mr. Flack.

As you know, Davenport has a very large and talented artistic, creative, and cultural community, and some from the community are here today as part of Arts Day on the Hill. There is huge interest in this Creative Canada policy , so I have a few questions for you.

First, one of the conversations we've had in the riding is about the lack of affordable spaces for theatre, dance, visual arts, and music. There's a huge belief that there's a lack of affordable spaces across Canada as well as in my dense urban riding of Davenport. So how does Creative Canada plan to support new performance spaces for artists and creators?

I know we talked a little about community hubs. I'm wondering if there are some additional dollars as well for affordable spaces. Thank you.

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

Of course, we made important reinvestments in our cultural spaces fund. I was in your riding, dear colleague, announcing great news for the MOCA, and we believe it is really important to have these spaces built. So we've done different things. First of all, in the criteria of the program, we allowed feasibility studies, and that will help groups create projects and ultimately get funding for them.

Importantly, we've increased our investments in cultural spaces to build theatres and museums, etc., as you were saying, but also I have worked very hard with the Minister of Infrastructure, my colleague Minister Sohi, to make sure that in the context of the FPT agreements on infrastructure that now, under our government, cultural infrastructure could be part of the infrastructure that is funded.

That was not the case in the past.

So bigger projects, which are usually over $50 million, can have access to funding through the FPT agreements that are within the purview of the Minister of Infrastructure.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Great. Thank you.

Davenport artists and creators would love to showcase their talents, not only to Canadians but around the world, and I know you spoke a little about dollars in Creative Canada for boots on the ground to help connect the opportunities in different countries with Canadians.

I wonder whether there might be some additional funding to get Canadian talent to go abroad.

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

That's a very good point. In the increased budget of the Canada Council, that's one of the things they'll be doing. We reinvested $550 million over five years in the Canada Council for the Arts, so we're basically doubling the budget of the Canada Council. It will have a bigger budget than even Arts Council England, and we're smaller in terms of population. Part of that reinvestment will help great artists in the performing arts, in the music sector, or, again, in the visual arts sector to have access to funding to go abroad. That's one thing.

Also, in the context of our export strategy, we've given $4.18 million to factor in Musicaction to really be able to support musicians and producers to seize new markets and enter new markets. That's another way for us to support the export of content in the music world, visual arts, or performing arts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Minister, and we will move on to Mr. Clarke again.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Minister, as you know, the 50th anniversary of the Official Languages Act and the 150th anniversary of Canada are getting on. We could be very bold. You probably are for some things, based on what you say.

Personally, I have other bold ideas. I'll propose them to you, and I would like to hear your comments.

You will surely table a budget of $1 billion or more, or at least I hope so. Don't you think it would be nice to send money directly to the groups? Every time I meet with them, what they ask for first is that the money not go through the departments, where three-quarters of the money is ultimately lost.

Don't you think that some of the money could be sent directly to the communities that need it? I think it would make them more responsible if we let them manage their own expenses. What do you think?

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

I have had an opportunity to meet with a number of groups that were very critical of the way money has been managed in the past. They felt that a lot of money was invested by the government for the government. As you said, their funding has not been increased in the past.

The current roadmap budget is $1.2 billion. It goes without saying that we are working really hard to ensure to have a very good roadmap for the next five years. The roadmap is set to expire on March 31. We want to make sure to have a good roadmap as of April 1. We are actually talking about an action plan for official languages.

I have had several meetings with the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, or FCFA, and various groups. I met with Jean Johnson twice last week. We are working very hard together to find a way to improve the situation of our linguistic communities, and that depends on the dynamism of their organization. So we obviously work with those groups to achieve good results.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

The Standing Committee on Official Languages may soon begin a study on modernizing the Official Languages Act, and we will definitely be bolder than we have been this morning. We recommend giving enforcement powers to the commissioner of official languages, lobbyists and the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner.

When I go door to door in my riding, I spontaneously ask people whether they think that the commissioner of official languages should have enforcement powers to aggressively enforce the Official Languages Act.

Do you think the commissioner should have enforcement powers? So far, he has been just a puppet without any power.

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

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with you.

I really don't think that the commissioner of official languages is a puppet; far from it.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

He has no power.

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

His work is very important.

When an officer of Parliament appeals to the government on various issues, the government takes it very seriously.

It goes without saying that we can always do better in official languages. Of course, we will have an opportunity to work with the current commissioner of official languages and with a new commissioner of official languages. We will also have an opportunity to bring forward a new action plan.

I look forward to the Senate's report. The Senate is currently looking into the issue. If the Standing Committee on Official Languages wants to study this issue, it would be my pleasure to receive its recommendations and consider them.

However, are you telling me that the Conservative Party wants to strengthen the powers of the commissioner of official languages?

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I think we have run out of time.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

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

Great.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We have run out of time. We are 25 seconds over the three minutes, so you've gone well over time.

I have allowed you some leeway, Mr. Clarke, and for the minister as well.

Now we go to Anju Dhillon for three minutes and then to Mr. Nantel.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Many thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.

Minister, do you think this new policy will promote Canadian and Quebecker multimedia content?

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

We know that journalism is facing tremendous challenges. The way people access content and consume information is changing. We have always recognized the importance of journalism and the fact that editorial independence must be respected.

When we invested $675 million in CBC/Radio-Canada, we had three objectives.

First, more investments must be made in the creation of local content, so that journalists in both official languages across the country can write articles about their communities.

Second, we need to support digital information infrastructure and increase the public broadcaster's knowledge in that area, be it in terms of metadata or algorithms.

Third, we must invest in the new generation at CBC, so that our public broadcaster would be strong in 50 years.

As I said in answering Mr. Vandal's question, we are looking into ways to modernize the Canada periodical fund—in other words, we are considering how local news is broadcast across the country and focusing on the production of local journalistic content. I am guided in particular by the committee's excellent work in this area as I undertake that modernization.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Can you tell us a bit more about the trip to China you are taking in 2018 to promote culture? How will that help Canadians and Quebeckers?

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

The cultural industry is very strong in Quebec, and across the country.

I had an opportunity to go to China last January and meet with my Chinese counterpart, the minister of culture. We agreed to create a joint committee, which is now formed. That will help us create more partnerships with that country. I expect my Chinese counterparts to visit Canada over the next few months, and then we will go meet them in Shanghai.

We have created a committee of experts to help us with that meeting. Several representatives of the Canadian cultural sector are members of that committee, such as Cirque du Soleil, Cavalia and a group from Vancouver called Archiact. Canadians who work as senior executives at Disney are also members. I want to point out that the Walt Disney group is currently making large investments in creative industries in Shanghai, China.

With all that expertise and given the interest shown across the country in culture, our mission will have very good representation next April.