Canadian Heritage Committee on May 29th, 2023

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

But I won't decide what other people watch. I want to make sure that's clear. It's a limited role that I have as parliamentary secretary.

Thank you so much, Minister. I have just a few seconds.

Again, I'd like to highlight your point. Even if we wanted to, with tens of millions or hundreds of millions of videos uploaded a day just on one streaming site, YouTube, and so few employees at the CRTC, it wouldn't be possible to participate in or to engage in the conspiracy theories—if they were true—even though they continue to be propagated by the opposition.

I think my time is up, but I want to say thank you for being here, Minister.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Thank you, Mr. Bittle.

I'm going to make an arbitrary decision.

We have 22 minutes before the hour. Minister and department officials, if you don't mind, we would like to do a short fourth round, because you have committed to us until one o'clock.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give the Conservatives and Liberals five minutes each and the NDP and the Bloc two and half minutes each.

That's what we'll do, and then we have some voting on the main estimates.

[An hon. member]

It should be five minutes for everyone.

[An hon. member]

C'est inéquitable.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Both of you have received generous time from Mr. Waugh today.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Anyway, let's go with five minutes.

It will be Ms. Lantsman for the Conservatives.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Sure. Thanks.

I want to go back to the policy directive that hasn't been issued and the fact that the CRTC has launched consultations or will be launching consultations. I think it's confusing for Canadians to understand what those consultations are about.

I understand you're going to say that the CRTC is at arm's length, but what do you think those consultations are about if there are no policy directives on the table?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I don't work with the CRTC on what they're doing at the moment. What I'm working on is making sure that I come up with the draft policy as soon as possible.

What I understand is that they're consulting generally more broadly, and that those consultations will be adapted when they receive the—

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

They're just consulting.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

They are consulting on Bill C-11. However, on the general aspect of the transformation, there's already a lot of stuff that we know. We know that we're modernizing a lot that should have been modernized a long time ago. They're looking at that, and then they are going to receive the policy direction and they're going to adapt it to that.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Have there been any political staff who have met with the CRTC with regard to any of the directives?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Not me, no.

I don't think so.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

“I don't think so”, or “no”?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

No.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Okay. I'll tell you why I'm asking.

Recently the CRTC published a web page. It was called “Myths and Facts”. I'm sure you've seen it. It has probably come up in your media monitoring, since you made it better after the Laith Marouf case.

On this page, the CRTC characterizes concerns held by the opposition—and frankly, content creators, academics and everybody we heard who talked about Bill C-11—as myths. It only takes a little bit of critical thinking to see that the facts espoused by the CRTC on that website are directly parroting the talking points that you have used as a minister on Bill C-11.

I want to know whether there was any formal instruction to the CRTC on any of this.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

No, not at all. No, but....

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Was it something that the CRTC did on its own?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Ms. Lantsman, if something is not true, it's very possible that I would say it's not true and that they would say it's not true because it's not a fact. I think one of the problems around the debate on Bill C-11 is that there are a lot of things that are not facts and have nothing to do with the bill, zero.

Freedom of expression has nothing to do with Bill C-11. It is a parallel discussion that some people wanted to initiate, and so they would not discuss the bill. The bill is simply asking the streamers to contribute to Canadian culture.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

When Canadians, academics, content creators—everybody who had issue with the bill—see the CRTC consulting widely, without the policy directives that you said Parliament would see, and then see the same talking points that you've used being parroted directly on the CRTC website, you could see why that would concern Canadians, correct?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Well, you can look at that way, but once again, if there are things that are not true, they can say what they want in terms of discussions. I don't speak for them. They are totally independent, and I'll always respect that. One of the fundamental things in our democracy is to respect the independence of those institutions.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Minister, I want to finish up by talking about funding for sport. You know that the committee is undertaking a study of safe sport, and I see that you have about $265 million in the budget.

I'm concerned because Hockey Canada has only implemented six of its 36 recommendations, and they're receiving funding again.

The Minister of Sport, after hearing from all of the athletes that they want a public inquiry, has not come forward with that and has instead implemented an accountability mechanism in Sport Canada, when Sport Canada was identified by all of the athletes as being part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I want to know whether you could tell us how much, if any, of that $265 million in your budget is going to support the Minister of Sport's initiatives.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

You have probably invited the Minister of Sport to come here to discuss the estimates. It's under her. It's not under me.

If you didn't invite her, it's....

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Okay.

Well, I'm glad to hear that none of your funds are going towards that.

Could you tell us, then, what the funding from Heritage under “Sport” is going to?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I don't touch sport. I'm sorry. I'd love to. I'm a big hockey fan and a soccer fan. I practise a lot of sports, but—