Evidence of meeting #8 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Creation, production, dissemination, exhibition, consumption—all of it?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes. Just to go back, the immediate emergency funding was to keep the operations going, but our funding, as the pandemic progressed, became more targeted, and it was targeted through our regular programs and new programs. We've actually created new programs along the way, exactly so that we could respond to the needs of each of the subsectors in the best way possible given that they were impacted differently and, on that chain, making sure that we were investing at the right place to enable the sector to recover.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you very much.
Madam Chair, I'll throw it back to you.
Hopefully, I've saved you 17 seconds more.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
You did. You gave me 16 seconds. You and Kevin are very generous today.
Now I'll go to Monsieur Champoux.
Martin, you have two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today. We're grateful to them for providing their expertise as part of this study.
Cultural industry stakeholders are obviously pleased to have the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage. However, they often tell us about the complex nature of the various programs. They find that there are many barriers. They even find it discouraging at times, and some of them are downright discouraged.
Are you aware of this situation, and are you taking the necessary steps to improve access to programs, particularly in times like these?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Corporate Affairs, Department of Canadian Heritage
I can answer your question.
When the pandemic was declared, we put emergency funds in place. We had done a survey and we received this type of feedback from our conversations with stakeholders about needs.
When the 2020‑21 estimates were announced, we established two funds, the recovery fund for arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors and the reopening fund. We were very aware of the situation. We contacted the stakeholders through our regional offices to ensure that they were aware of all the funds available and that there wasn't any confusion.
In addition, we obviously worked closely with other departments that also established funds. We kept our colleagues in the provinces and territories informed of our funds. We could inform stakeholders of the funds that they could access if the province or territory were unable to meet their needs.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Okay.
The recommendations in the committee's report from its first study, which was entitled “Impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic on the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors” and which was submitted in April 2021, include the following:
The Committee recommends that the Department of Canadian Heritage strike a committee to study new funding models for organizations in the arts, culture, heritage, and sports sectors.
In his response to the report, the minister at the time, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, said the following:
The Government is pleased to report to the Committee that work in this regard is under way. While the creation of a new committee to study new funding models for organizations is not currently part of this work ...
However, the situation has changed since then.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Martin, I'm going to have to ask the officials to give a very quick answer, because we've gone over time.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
We have six minutes, Madam Chair. Isn't this the first round of questions?
Bloc
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
I have a point of order, Madam Chair.
I also thought that we were starting another round. We usually go back to the first round of questions when a second panel replaces the first.
NDP
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Okay. All right.
Clerk, I didn't think we were doing this. I thought we were just continuing. Because the minister stayed three-quarters of an hour extra, it was like a two-hour panel, and we were just going with each round continuing.
Clerk, do you have a bit of advice for me on this? Do we restart completely? I didn't think so, because nobody else was given six minutes.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Aimée Belmore
Did you want to suspend, or do you want me to give you the advice right now?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Oh, it's as I wish? Okay. We have time, I suppose.
Is the whole committee in agreement? Do I have unanimous consent to allow Monsieur Champoux and Monsieur Julian to have five minutes, because this is a five-minute round?
Conservative
The Clerk
Dr. Fry, everybody seems to be in agreement, and if we're going back to the first round it will be six minutes each.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
The other two people did not have six minutes—Mr. Waugh and Mr..... We will go with the five-minute round. Thank you. We're trying to cut this.
All right, so you have another two minutes and 30 seconds, Mr. Champoux, starting again.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Julian, for that brilliant point of order.
I'll keep my question short. In response to this recommendation in the report, Minister Guilbeault said that a committee wouldn't be struck to study new funding models for organizations, but that work was already under way.
However, the situation has changed. We're hopefully emerging from this pandemic.
Do you think that it's time to sit down with people in the industry and review how the Canadian Heritage programs work?
