Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 30th, 2023

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Not in my riding, ma'am. I would disagree with you 100%. My weekly papers carry the municipal advertising constantly, so you're wrong.

In my riding, the weekly papers are carrying all those municipal notices. They are, so for you to say that.... That's a mistake. You're not aware, then, of what our weekly papers and our municipalities are doing.

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

Can you please direct the members of the Conservative Party to speak through the chair rather than pointing fingers at the witness?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes. I have been allowing that to happen.

Please address the chair when you're speaking to anyone else. Thank you. Go through the chair.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Let's move to the next question.

There's $100 million on the table, which we talked about. Is it 100% cash, or is there a gift in-kind in that $100 million?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I want to be clear that I was referring to places like Quebec, where municipalities now have the option of publishing their public notices on digital platforms rather than in local newspapers.

As for the $100 million Canadian, Madam Chair, that is real money, and it will be indexed to the cost of living and paid out each year. As for other services offered by Google to the media, such as technology or advertising services, it's up to the media and Google to negotiate amongst themselves.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

You're saying that it's $100 million cash. There was no in-kind in the past, from this past year—nothing. There was no in-kind in this past year.

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

The Online News Act will come into force on December 19. Google will then negotiate with the collective.

In the regulations, it will be specified that Google must pay $100 million a year, indexed to the cost of living, to the media collective. It will be paid in cash.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

In the collective that they are going to be negotiating with, are you suggesting that everybody's going to be at that table? The weekly papers in my riding are going to be represented by whom?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

The collective is responsible for representing all media that meet the criteria set out in subsection 11(1) of the act. All media outlets who come forward and want to have an agreement with Google will be part of the collective, which is obliged to represent all of them.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Who's determining who's in that collective? Is the government determining it, or is Google going to determine it?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

That was already determined in the act passed in the spring, which received royal assent. Further details on the distribution of the money will be set out in regulations to be published a few days before the act comes into force, scheduled for December 19.

However, all eligible media must be part of the collective. The collective will be required to respect them and distribute the money transparently, in compliance with the act and its regulations. In addition, it will be overseen by the CRTC.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

When you use the word—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Minister.

I'm sorry, Mr. Shields. Your time is up.

I'm going to go to Michael Coteau.

Michael, you have five minutes, please.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you so much.

I'm going to split my time with Mr. Lemire. We'll take two and a half minutes each, so if you can let me.... Actually, maybe I should put my timer on. Maybe you could just give me a sign.

Again, thank you so much, Minister, for being here. I think the heritage and culture department and the work it does is so important for the well-being of this country.

I was able to serve as the minister of culture for three years in Ontario. Just seeing the impact of culture from an economic standpoint, from an inclusive perspective, bringing people together to share a similar narrative and to capture their similar values.... It's so important to our communities.

I remember that, in Ontario, one of the biggest challenges that the large institutions like the ROM, the McMichael and all these other agencies had was diversifying their base of people coming in. I know that many museums today struggle, and cultural centres struggle in bringing that next generation of young people into their institutions, as well as people who may be new to Canada.

How serious an issue is this nationally? What is the government doing about building cultural services and departments that are more inclusive for people?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you very much for your question.

I agree with you that culture, especially large institutions such as museums and art institutes, have a great responsibility to make sure that their doors are always open to the diversity of our communities. They need to reflect the Canadian population, which is great.

We are now 40 million people. It is a very diverse country, and I think that's our strength. Of course, our cultural institutions need to make sure that they are in this great place where we can have safe conversations around art and culture that give us a reflection of where society is and what the great challenges are. Something that I love and respect about artists is the fact that they can make us think about where we stand and where we are as a society.

Arts and culture need to do that more. This is part of the conversation that we need to have in the next year and a half. How do we do this? How do we support all of these cultural institutions to achieve that goal? Of course, it starts with governance. These institutions are more and more diverse—

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I think my time is up, and I don't want to take time away from my colleague.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Coteau. I really appreciate that.

Minister, at a press conference on May 11, you made the following statement:

I would like to reiterate my commitment and clear any doubts that may remain. I will respond to the requests from athletes and survivors for a national inquiry.

The word used in English is “inquiry”.

This is a legitimate request and I'm working to be able to announce this as soon as I can....

In your opening remarks today, you said, “governing means making decisions.” That's interesting. Two and a half months passed between the time you made the statement and the time you changed departments. Naturally, the fact that you didn't take action fuelled my cynicism and loss of confidence in the government.

Why didn't you take action on this independent public inquiry during those two and a half months?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I'd like to thank my colleague for his question, Madam Chair, and for all the work he's done on safety in sport.

When I said those words, it was my intention to follow through. However, it's not something that can be done overnight. It's not easy to organize a national discussion on such significant issues. We have to make sure we do it the right way. Unfortunately, there was a cabinet shuffle, and I was unable to continue the work. I do know, however, that my colleague Ms. Qualtrough, the new Minister of Sport, will be here to talk more about what she plans to do about safety in sport.

Like my colleague, I was really disturbed when I heard all the stories. Clearly, there must be discussions about what to do next.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Minister, are you still prepared to support a public inquiry into sport?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I said it was something I'd liked to have done. Now it's out of my mandate, but I will obviously support the government if it decides to go forward. It's a discussion that could not only result in innovative solutions, but also involve the provinces and territories, as this is an issue that should be of concern to all levels of government. Everyone needs to be at the table to further protect young people.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Do you find it acceptable, as it is rumoured, that CBC/Radio-Canada's budget cuts were split equally between French and English services, when we know that CBC's and Radio-Canada's budgets are far from equal?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

The public broadcaster is independent of the government, and I'm going to let it manage that internally. However, our government is very clear on the fact that Radio-Canada must play a very significant role in defending French, not only in Quebec, but also outside Quebec, in official language minority communities. I expect CBC/Radio-Canada to uphold its mandate.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Minister, I want to thank you for staying the extra time, I appreciate it. I apologize for any disruption that occurred.

I want to thank you for being here.

We will suspend for a few minutes while the minister leaves. The officials will stay to finish the remainder of this meeting.

Thank you.