Canadian Heritage Committee on May 5th, 2026

[Joëlle Montminy, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Cultural Affairs, Department of Canadian Heritage]

As the deputy minister said, these additional investments are much needed. As you know, we have heard—and I'm sure you've heard as well—that inflation has created significant pressure on a lot of arts organizations.

It's providing that additional funding but also talking to organizations about how we can continue to support them in finding that space where they can become more resilient, and then how they can continue to function and grow the programming that we want to enjoy as Canadians and how they can structure themselves to continue finding different sources of funds as well.

There are different conversations. Again, these investments are really important, as well as the ongoing dialogue, to make sure that we continue to support them in getting stronger and more resilient.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I will highlight the celebration and commemoration program that supports local initiatives, a number of them funded in your area. We can talk about the Canadian Cultural Festival and Canada Day in Coquitlam. Through our programming, these types of initiatives and supports for community-led initiatives are being funded across the country.

[Zoe Royer, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

That's incredible. I think that responds very nicely to some smaller organizations.

In the metro Vancouver area, which my riding is part of, there are also what we call the “G-8”, the larger, well-established organizations: Ballet BC, Arts Umbrella, Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Art Gallery, etc.

There's also an emerging player: Ballet Vancouver. It is repatriating some of the top-performing Canadian ballet artists who are coming back from companies like the American Ballet Theatre. Some of them were trained in my riding.

How can these bigger groups meet with your department? Are you accessible and open to meeting with them? What programs can they tap into?

[Francis Bilodeau]

I am now about five months into the department and some things are quite striking to me. I've had the opportunity to travel a bit around the country and meet our stakeholders. The extent to which people within the department are connected to their committees, to their stakeholder groups, etc., and are known and sought after is incredible. Some of my colleagues might want to speak to this.

I have great pride and happiness to see that level of connection between the department and the various stakeholders, whether it's on the multiculturalism side, the arts and culture side, or the sports side. We aim to be a department that is accessible to our stakeholders in hearing their concerns and supporting them through the important work they do.

[Zoe Royer, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

That's music to my ears. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you.

Mr. Champoux, you have two and a half minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Hello again, everyone.

Mr. Bilodeau, the minister mentioned a figure earlier when I asked him about the expanded tax credit for digital media newsrooms. He said the measure would cost $6 billion. I don’t understand how this measure could cost $6 billion. Earlier, I didn’t have any figures before me, so I took the time to look into what the $6 billion cost of this measure might entail.

Could you give me further details on how this tax credit amount was calculated? Quebec has granted one under another measure, so I imagine the government must have used the same estimates to determine what the tax credit would cost.

[Francis Bilodeau]

To give you further details, I think we will have to provide a more direct answer at a later time. A number of factors will depend on the parameters, such as whether a maximum amount is set, for example. Expenditures will depend on the parameters of this tax credit and how the program is designed. All of these factors can affect the potential figure.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I understand, but it's an existing tax credit for journalism labour in print media, so you already have a model you can follow. What's more, the Government of Quebec included the tax credit in its most recent budget. Again, you can use that framework as a guide.

Do you think it could actually cost $6 billion? Unless a decision is made to fully cover all journalists' salaries, is $6 billion a realistic number?

[Francis Bilodeau]

I believe the Department of Finance came up with the estimated cost of the tax credit. I wouldn't want to speculate on the figure, but I would be happy to get back to you with more detailed numbers.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

That's great.

By way of background, Quebecor is definitely the largest journalism employer in Quebec, if we don't include Radio-Canada. Quebecor estimates that it would amount to roughly $3 million a year. Let's assume, then, that it's $3 million for Quebecor. If I do the math, taking into account all TV and radio newsrooms across Canada, I find the minister's estimate surprising.

I would very much appreciate it if you could provide us with the numbers. Perhaps you could work with the Department of Finance, if it would help you get back to us with more exact numbers. We'll wait for you to get back to us with that information.

I want to ask you something about Google's annual payment of $100 million. I think everyone welcomed that announcement. We found out that Google was choosing the organization that would distribute the money. That may have been an aspect that went undetected. I'm not sure we anticipated that Google would choose who was going to distribute the funds.

Has the feedback been positive thus far? Are you satisfied? Is Google's annual $100‑million contribution being distributed properly?

[Joëlle Montminy]

Yes, you're right. During the process, Google chose the collective it wanted to work with to disburse the funds, the Canadian Journalism Collective.

I think we all paid close attention to the organization in its early days. It's worth noting that it didn't exist beforehand, so it wasn't already disbursing funds. It was created for that purpose. Arrangements and adjustments were made. I would say the organization showed that it was attuned to what was going on, to make sure the funds were distributed in a way that satisfied the needs of the ecosystem as a whole. As we know, the media sector has small players, medium-sized players and big players. Good representation was in everyone's interest. It was also important to make sure that the terms and conditions for disbursing the money were satisfactory. A governance structure had to be set up.

Obviously, we don't have any oversight of that process. The CRTC oversees the distribution of funds and the manner in which they are disbursed. That said, on our end, we haven't heard about any issues at this time. It's going well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you.

Mr. Waugh, you have the floor now for five minutes.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Welcome, department officials.

I really didn't get an answer about the heritage department's paying $72,000 just for the advance copy of StatsCan's March 30 release on police-reported hate crime. Who made that decision in the department? I take it the minister doesn't know much about it, if anything at all.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I will see if my colleagues know. This would have been before my time. It would be unusual for us to pay for it in advance.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

It wasn't before your time. This was March 30.

[Francis Bilodeau]

It would be unusual for us to pay to see an advance copy. It would not be unusual for us to enter into an agreement with StatsCan to co-fund certain studies it does. If that is the case, then it wouldn't be unusual for us to have an advance copy and to see surveys that would have been done in collaborations we have done.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

You would pay $72,000.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I'm not speaking to specifically this one.

StatsCan does work partly on cost recovery where the work it is doing is of interest to a department. It doesn't pay, itself, the entirety of studies, with exceptions, obviously, for those that are core to its mandate. Where there are areas of interest to departments, it will often seek financial support from departments to undertake studies. That would be a normal course of a payment. Under that normal course of things, it would not be unusual for us to see an advance copy before it's publicly released.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

You were going to ask somebody else on the panel if this was normal. You had turned to another official—maybe Andrew; I don't know.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I was seeing if anybody had direct knowledge of this one. I'm not seeing it around the table. I'm happy to come back to you more directly on this one. What I'm saying is that it would not be unusual, if we've co-funded a research project by StatsCan or a survey by StatsCan, for us to both pay and have an advance copy.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

How often does this happen with the department? To me, $72,000 is not chump change.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I would say that it's actually a fairly common occurrence for departments to co-fund studies with StatsCan. It is actually a normal course of business that I have seen in other departments as well.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Was there something in the report that you were worried about or flagged?

[Francis Bilodeau]

Generally, data around hate events or others within Canada would be of interest to us in terms of multiculturalism. Those are things we would be interested in knowing and understanding and deepening our understanding about. They would be of general interest to the Canadian public, in line with our mandate.