Canadian Heritage Committee on April 26th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Housefather.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Chair, I want to speak to this because I'm of two minds. I am actually also very sympathetic to the idea of the independent producers and the lack of power they have in relationships. I listened to both sides, and that is why I actually drafted amendment LIB-7 in the way I did, because the main issue was the exploitative nature of the relationship, which led the independent producers to not be able to retain their intellectual property.

I tried to find a balance. In LIB-7 I tried to incorporate what would constitute a Canadian program for the purposes of the act. In so doing, I said that the commission must consider whether Canadians own and control intellectual property rights over Canadian programs for exploitation purposes, and that they have to retain a material portion of the value.

I also stated that one of the requirements is whether online undertakings and programming undertakings collaborate with Canadian independent producers. I think the way I did it in LIB-7 is preferable to the way it's set out in PV-21, so I will vote against PV-21 because I support LIB-7, but I am sympathetic to the request, and I appreciate Mr. Manly's efforts here.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Rayes.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There's a minute left in the meeting and I'd like to ask a question. We'll be having another meeting this evening, during which we will be called to vote in the House. I'd like to know what the procedure is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I'm sorry, Mr. Rayes. The meeting in question will actually be next Monday, which is May 3. It's not tonight. That's the proposed extra meeting that we applied for and we will have. We will not be asking you to come this evening. I'm not sure if I answered your question fully.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Good. I mixed up the two Mondays. So I've just learned that this evening, apart from the vote in the House, my schedule will be less busy.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

That's all right. As the song says, I don't like Mondays either, so we're all good.

Is there any further discussion on amendment PV-21?

I see no further discussion, so we'll now go to a vote.

Shall PV-21 carry?

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

No.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I hear a no.

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

Can we say negatived on division?

(Amendment negatived on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Ladies and gentlemen, I think that brings us to a conclusion.

We will see you at the next meeting, of course, on April 30, this coming Friday, at the same time.

As I mentioned before, we were unable to get extra hours for Friday, so we will be meeting in our normal two-hour block. Following that, on May 3, we have two meetings scheduled on Bill C-10. If we finish with Bill C-10, we can discuss at that point. We'll see how we're doing on April 30. I think April 30 will give us a far better indication of how we're going to do for May 3.

In any case, I will say thank you to our officials from the department.

Thank you to everybody participating virtually here and abroad.

Thanks, everyone.

The meeting is adjourned.