Evidence of meeting #95 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 hub.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Your speaking time is up, Mr. Breton. Thank you very much.
Now we will move on to Mr. Nantel from the NDP for two minutes.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you very much.
I am not going to beat around the bush. I want to ask you one of the questions provided by our Library of Parliament analysts: in your opinion, which international or Canadian examples should the committee examine during its study? That is a straightforward question. Are there any interesting international examples you can think of?
I will tell you the reasoning behind my question. I think this committee is faced with significant industry interests in culture. Consequently, we should spend a lot of time studying how amending the Copyright Act would impact cultural communities and cultural industries.
Why do you want the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to study your program? Isn't Canadian Heritage capable of doing that itself?
9:50 a.m.
Director General, Arts Policy Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
I would like you to go back to the first question, please.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I see plenty of merit and plenty of promise in this fledgling program. That being said, why would it be worthwhile for the committee to do a study of your program, since I'm guessing you have already done several?
9:55 a.m.
Director General, Arts Policy Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
There is some confusion here. We are not the ones who asked you to do this study. However, this does give us an opportunity to explain to you how the government is investing in cultural spaces and cultural districts.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I want to emphasize how much I appreciate it. Thank you for explaining this to me. I have often asked for these concepts to be defined for my benefit, and you did it beautifully.
Do you think it would be very worthwhile for us to spend a lot of time on this?
9:55 a.m.
Director General, Arts Policy Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
I don't think it would be appropriate for me to answer that.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
That brings us to the end of this part. Thank you very much for your presentations. They were very helpful for kicking off this study and prompting all of the questions.
We're going to have to suspend for a few minutes as we go in camera for committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]