Thanks.
You know, Mr. Bunce, that's so true. I was a school board trustee. We have beautiful theatres in the Saskatoon public school system: Aden Bowman, after Robert Hinitt; Bedford Road; Walter Murray; and Evan Hardy. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we use them 10 months of the year.
Grumms, thank you. We don't often talk about a provincial scene. You mentioned Creative Saskatchewan. It wasn't always there. There were a lot of headwinds in our province.
I would encourage each and every one of you. Yes, you can write submissions to Canadian Heritage, but don't forget where you've come from. In Saskatchewan, we've had a long and tenuous battle with the arts community, if you don't mind, in my province. We've made some inroads in the last several years, but it does take time. Also, for municipalities, sit down with your mayors and councillors, because they know the spaces that could be available to each and every one of your groups, more so than you. They have a handle on what's open and what's not.
In saying that, Madam Chair, I would like to move a motion this afternoon on the matter at hand. I have copies in both official languages for the clerk to distribute to everyone.
It's in response to the recent CRTC decision proposing to increase the contribution requirement of some online streaming firms. In particular, it's important that we have a discussion here, in the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. The decision will have a major impact, as we know, on the arts and culture sector in this country, and it is a matter of great importance at this committee. We have focused on Canadian culture in this country, and we know that this is very relevant to our study today on the state of creative and performance spaces across this country.
Additionally, it's very relevant right now because we know the minister is heading down to Washington to talk about CUSMA and the potential trade irritants of the Americans that we've heard about since the CRTC made the decision to go from 5% to 15% and billions of dollars.... I've had a couple of companies in my office in the last couple of days. We're going to lose billions of dollars in foreign production investment in this country. It's going to be affected by this major change in regulation, and I think we definitely need to hear from the minister on this.
We've heard from the government. They're stating that the CRTC is at arm's length. They're not. Subject to section 2:
...the Governor in Council may, by order, issue to the Commission directions of general application on broad policy matters with respect to
(a) any of the objectives of the broadcasting policy set out in subsection 3(1); or
(b) any of the objectives of the regulatory policy set out in subsection 5(2).
We're going to stand to lose significant foreign investment, in the billions of dollars. This is a major issue in this country. It will affect everybody in this room. I therefore move the following motion, which reads, in English: “ The Canadian radio-television commission, better known as the CRTC, has issued a decision to increase from 5% to 15% the contribution requirement of some online streaming firms, such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and that Ms. Vicky Eatrides, the CEO of CRTC, appear at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for 2 hours to explain this decision of 5% to 15%. And given that the Cabinet has ultimate authority over such decisions, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages, appear at this Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for 2 hours to probe how Canada's interest will be protected, considering the profound impact that this decision will have on the CUSMA negotiations that will be entered into in the next month.”
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move this.