I would say we have an ecosystem in the live music industry, and it is imperative that we understand that. My previous response was trying to allude to this.
When we think about multinationals in other sectors.... For some reason, in entertainment, we're more preoccupied with the impact. What I've been suggesting all along is that we build policy tools to balance the ecosystem.
When I talk about $11 billion in GDP from the live music sector, this is a range—small, medium and large companies are delivering this. Our multinational companies with a presence in Canada are important to the Canadian economy, to Canadian jobs and to local economies. In fact, the Canada pension plan owns 8.79 million shares of Live Nation. That stake amounts to approximately 3.7% of the company's total outstanding common stock and is valued at roughly $1.39 billion.
We're not talking about big versus little. We need multinational companies in this country to grow our economy. What we need in order to address the concerns of our colleagues from across the country are better policy tools to identify how we build sustainable growth at every rung of the venue ladder, because this ultimately will serve Canadian artists, Canadians and the Canadian economy.