Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 5th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Let us just continue on very quickly, because this is the time we have with the officials.

With your indulgence, since we started late and it's much later now than we anticipated, I'd like to do it this way. Instead of doing this in a formal manner and going down the list, may I propose something like a lightning round? If anybody has a specific question, please raise your hand and we'll deal with it. It doesn't have to be linked to parties. It's just if you have any questions for the officials that you didn't get answered.

I see Mr. Rayes. I'll go from the list that we see here, and then we'll go from the floor back to the list. We'll try to make this as short as we can. We don't have a lot of time.

Mr. Rayes, the floor is yours.

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

I have a question about the assistance given to the various small organizations in the regions. For example, country festivals, village festivals and very small museums do not receive annual funding from Canadian Heritage.

How could these organizations, which have no revenue other than their ticket sales, or the proceeds from beer or from the cafeteria, be contacted to access their share of the 20% of the $500 million allocated to them?

As members of Parliament, we have never had access to this specific information, which would have allowed us to pass it on.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

In the case of the small museums, for which we had budgeted a substantial amount in phase 2 of the expenditures, we set up an online portal where people could apply. We also communicated a great deal with local associations to let them know that funds were available.

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

If there was funding for phase 2, it would have been nice if all 338 members of Parliament had access to that information, because I think we are in the best position to inform those organizations, since we know them. They are often volunteers who don't have full-time positions, so it's fine to give them this information, but they don't have the resources to communicate it quickly.

You have access to 338 ambassadors who all love their region and think it is the most beautiful in the world, so I invite you to use us. Few departments did so during the crisis, despite the urgency of communicating with people. This is an appeal that I am making to you, and I hope that it will be heard the next time there is help for people in the cultural sector and for small events, especially in the regions.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

Thank you for your suggestion. We will certainly keep it in mind in the future if we try to reach partners who are not our usual partners.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you, Mr. Rayes.

I'm going to try to move this along. It's very informal, at this point.

Again, if you want to ask a question, please raise your hand.

Tom, is there anybody in the room right now who would like to ask a question?

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

Yes, sir. I believe Mr. Shields and Ms. McPherson have both raised their hands.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Shields.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'll be quick.

I would like to know the amount of money that went to advertising in weekly newspapers in Canada. I'd like to know the amount of money spent on advertising, to print advertising, out of Heritage—not to support under any other program other than the amount of money that was paid to weekly advertising in their print paper.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Can I do a really hot pursuit on this? That was going to be my question, except I also wanted to add, if I could, how much was spent on Facebook ads.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Just so that the officials are clear, it's weeklies and Facebook ads.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

You mean by Canadian Heritage, per se.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Correct.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

I would have to get back to you on whether or not we paid for any advertisements, because we don't advertise a lot. I could not give you that answer directly, unless Eric or Jean-Stéphen know.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Under the Canadian media fund—you fund them—what I need to know is how much money was spent by the federal government on print ads in weekly papers.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

And Facebook.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's the other side of it—how much on digital.

[Jean-Stéphen Piché]

Just to be clear, Canadian Heritage is not the conduit for federal advertising. PSPC is responsible for that function.

In terms of us as a department using ads, that's something we would have to look into. We don't manage federal advertisements in general. This is not within the purview of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Can we get it for print and digital under Heritage, then?

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you, Mr. Shields.

I will draw that part to a close.

Folks, we're running over time in a major way, for reasons that were obvious from the beginning, but we still have to vote on these particular measures in both the mains and the supplementaries. With unanimous consent, I can group all of these together. There are several votes here that would take some time. However, we can break this up into three things: number one, an overall vote on the main estimates; a second vote on the supplementary (B)s; and then a third vote to refer it to the House.

I need unanimous consent to do that. In the virtual world, of course, we have to do this by dissension.

Yes, Mr. Piché.

[Jean-Stéphen Piché]

May I make an adjustment to something I said? It relates directly to the vote you want to take. There was a question about the CBC adjustment in their budget.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Very quickly, please go ahead.

[Jean-Stéphen Piché]

There was an adjustment in the CBC budget in supplementary (B)s due to the deferral of the Tokyo Olympics, and for the TV rights. We can send you information on this. Someone asked the question earlier. I didn't have the information on hand when I answered. There was a budgetary adjustment because the games have been postponed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you very much, sir.

Is there any dissension on doing this by grouping the votes together?