Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 30th, 2020

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In 2008, after the economic crisis, the marquee tourism events program, or MTEP, was established. This program gave the tourism industry a major boost in its recovery from the crisis. Given the economic issues that sponsors were experiencing, they were unable to contribute to the same extent.

We're currently in a similar, if not worse, financial situation. The industry really appreciated this program. A number of people would be very happy to see it come back or to see a similar program.

Would you consider this model as a way to revitalize the tourism industry, festivals and events that fit in with the MTEP at the time?

[Hélène Laurendeau]

A variation on the same theme is currently being considered. This program is the responsibility of our colleagues at the Department of Industry and the department responsible for tourism. However, as the member who spoke before you said, the impact on cultural festivals and sporting events, among other events, also affects the tourism industry and local economic activities.

I said earlier that all options were on the table. Of course, we're looking at things that have been done in the past and wondering whether these things could be considered in the future. I can't tell you whether this program will be revived. However, it's certainly part of our reflection process.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I have a quick question regarding the assistance, which will be redefined based on the data that you're collecting.

Do you plan to ensure that support is provided for the last links in the chain, meaning the artists, creators, craftspeople and freelancers, for example, who aren't organizations per se and who depend on contracts?

Do you have mechanisms in place to ensure that they receive the assistance meant for them?

[Hélène Laurendeau]

This is an ongoing concern. At the start of the pandemic, this prompted us to work with our colleagues in other departments and to tell them that specific measures were needed for the arts, culture and amateur sports sectors, for the very reasons that you brought up.

The simple answer to your question is yes. This issue will remain a key concern. Will we accomplish this through a combination of accountability measures for organizations or through direct support? This is yet to be seen. However, I can tell you that this issue will remain a key concern.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you.

Ms. McPherson, you have two minutes and 30 seconds, please.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to follow up a little on what my colleague from the Bloc just brought up.

Edmonton Strathcona of course is home to a number of festivals. The Edmonton fringe festival is one of them, but we also have the Edmonton Heritage Festival, the street performers' festival, the art folks. All of them weren't able to go forward, and all of them have deep impacts across the community in terms their effect on restaurants and shops and all kinds of things.

You have given us some information about this subject, and I appreciate it. I would, however, press very hard the point that these festivals are vital for so much economic and cultural response in our communities.

One question I want to ask concerns venues. We have a large number of performance venues, both for-profit and non-profit. Because there were a number of issues with the CECRA, the rent program, many of those venues weren't able to access it and had to close. We have heard that others who have been hanging on just trying to get through until spring are now worried that they are on the verge of shutting down forever.

Can you talk about how you are planning to help venues with the current restrictions? We're asking them to stay closed for safety reasons. How can we make sure they are protected?

[Hélène Laurendeau]

For the sake of time, I will jump right away to Monsieur Piché on this one.

Monsieur Piché.

[Jean-Stéphen Piché]

Thank you for the question.

There is no silver bullet on this question. We're sharing information with the Canada Council as well as our own program, the Canada arts presentation fund, to look at organizations that own their own venues rather than occupy other buildings. Of course, those who own venues have suffered much more, because in covering all of the costs and not being able to operate, they suffer far more.

The impacts of our emergency funding have been uneven from that perspective, because those who own venues have suffered much more. As you mentioned, the rent program has had some issues as well.

There is also a discussion of the ingredients you need for a restart and how we're going to do it. It's a discussion about what we need to maintain while the closures are going on in order to maintain the infrastructure.

The other part of the answer is in the stimulus component. What kinds of infrastructure do we need, and how do we build into it the adaptation component, if we have a pandemic that lasts longer than this one has? How can we do a form of re-entry? How can we build some adaptation features into infrastructure to make those organizations more resilient in the face of issues such as those we are living through right now.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you, Mr. Piché, and thank you, Ms. McPherson, and of course thanks to everybody.

I want to thank specifically Madame Laurendeau, Mr. Dendooven, and of course Monsieur Piché for coming in today on this wide topic. It's a big topic to grapple with in just one hour. Nevertheless, we appreciate your coming in and providing the answers. Of course, I'm sure you will follow up in the cases that you said you would. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Committee members, we're going to break now to go in camera. There is a technical process for doing so, and it may take some time.

I'm going to ask the clerk how we are notified to come back after we break.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Thomas Bigelow]

Thank you, sir.

We'll ask the members who are logged into Zoom to log out of this meeting. It should take only a few minutes to get the next meeting set up. Give the clerks perhaps a minute or two to log in.

Then, please follow the instructions you receive by email to log in to the second meeting—perhaps just a moment or two after you log out of this meeting. We should be set up relatively quickly. We'll get to the testing and all of that once we're in that meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Okay.

So we can log in after we log out from here. Of course, that requires a second password, as you know.

[The Clerk]

Apologies, sir, but if I may, I'm being told by IT that members should wait five minutes before logging in, if that's okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Okay.

It is now 2:07 there. How about we log back in at 2:12?

Okay, everyone. Let's suspend.

[Proceedings continue in camera]