Thank you, Madam Chair.
Speaking to this amendment—and I'll leave some time so Mr. Julian can have a say—specifically, it would exclude social media platforms like YouTube, which is what more than two-thirds of Canadians use to stream music. It would perpetuate an unfair playing field, and ultimately that's what this bill is about. It's about making these platforms pay.
From the beginning, it's almost seemed like we were looking at the International Olympic Committee, and I'm sure many of us in the room would say, “That's not a great organization. Look at the athletes. The athletes are great. They're doing great things. They're doing wonderful things, but don't look at the IOC. Let's not discuss that as an important part of sport and the actions they take.” The Conservatives are discussing and bringing forth these amendments for the benefit of some of the largest companies in the world, Google and TikTok, and we're here to ensure that individual platforms will have obligations under this bill, not users.
We need to ensure that there is a level playing field, and we need to ensure that platforms contribute to Canadian culture. It's been the Canadian model, something we've been doing for decades successfully—having that discussion, having that talk. We all pick our favourite stories that we've heard from Canadians and favourite artists.
We had Gord Sinclair from the Tragically Hip here to talk about how the system benefited him and how it benefited a band from a small town in eastern Ontario to make it big on the scene. I know that Mr. Gerretsen will probably be upset that I called it a small town in eastern Ontario, but that's what Mr. Sinclair said. He talked about needing to have this legislation to ensure that we have the next Tragically Hip, so we can continue to tell those Canadian stories and have those benefits.
I'd like to ensure that Mr. Julian has a chance to speak, because I see we're getting close to nine o'clock, but those are the government's objectives.