Industry Committee on March 25th, 2010

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Do you see any difference between broadband and telecommunication services?

[Helen McDonald]

Telecommunications is often used as a very generic word to cover telephone or cellular.... Broadband refers to your ability to get the Internet either on your smart phone or on your laptop or on your computer, with a range of video or multi-tasking, a certain capacity and robustness. So if you've rolled out a cellular network, you can't simply use that for Internet access without some changes by the carriers.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Let me be a bit more specific. For a company like Rogers, which is a wireless company, a broadband company, a broadcasting company, would you see that they might have to divest some of their broadcasting assets to take more advantage of foreign ownership possibilities?

[Marta Morgan]

I think Minister Clement has been quite clear that the commitment to look at the issue of foreign investment restrictions will not extend to culture and broadcasting.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

All right, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mrs. Lavallée, would you like to take the floor?

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Cardin really wants to finish his question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All right.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

But the last three minutes are mine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

No problem.

Go ahead, Mr. Cardin.

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

I think we have the time.

I am talking to the people from the department. At our last meeting, I had asked for a written answer on the impact on competition following the order of the minister at the time, Maxime Bernier. I hope we will have that answer.

Mr. Chair, could you tell me whether it would be possible for the people from the department to come back for the other hour that we are not going to have today?

Assuming that they will accept the invitation, I will leave the other questions to Mrs. Lavallée.

[Marta Morgan]

We will follow up.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Is it my turn?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

All right, thank you.

Ms. Morgan, what I like best in your entire presentation is the last sentence. It is the one where you say that the government will take time to consult and to fully consider options before moving forward. The issue is very important.

The difference between telecommunications and broadcasting, which you talked about earlier, is no longer obvious.Telecommunications is the wiring and broadcasting is what goes on inside. Whoever controls the wiring controls what is inside; whoever controls access controls content. That is increasingly clear with wireless telephones, and so on. I am not going to paint you a picture since that would insult your intelligence. We know that ring tones, for example, are created by musicians. It is they who decide the language to be used and we can even watch a video on our phones. Even the Wilson panel, whose study you cited, says on the first page that it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between telecommunications and broadcasting. A number of people will probably come and say that is impossible. There are those who think it and those who say it.

You are also making a comparison with the European Union, but, unfortunately, the situations are not the same. Canada—and Quebec, which is six times larger than France—is a vast country with other problems, sitting next to an extremely formidable and entertaining cultural empire. We are in a situation where we have to protect our culture. We have to protect it in our telecommunications devices, for example, and in every possible way.

Before asking you my question, let me digress, since it is quite obvious that you have put the cart before the horse. You have decided to enforce the law you want even before passing it. It flies in the face of all evidence that Globalive was in fact controlled by Orascom.

What kind of measures are you currently thinking of incorporating in your future bill to curb foreign ownership in telecommunications, and to protect Quebec and Canadian culture?

[Marta Morgan]

These are very complicated questions and the decisions that go with them will have a lot of impact. My minister clearly said that we are going to take our time, that the government really must consider all options and consequences. He has also made it clear that culture and broadcasting are not to be touched; we are dealing only with telecommunications.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I have one comment, Ms. Morgan. You say that you are not touching culture, but culture touches you. You cannot say that it is none of your concern. It is everywhere, it is in the telecommunications devices. Even Mr. Wilson, the author of the study you talked about in your presentation, wrote two years ago that we are not able to differentiate between telecommunications and broadcasting, that it is becoming more and more difficult to do so. So what are you going to do to protect culture?

[Marta Morgan]

The government must take time to study all these issues, but it is clear that we are not dealing with cultural or broadcasting matters in terms of the commitments made in the Speech from the Throne and in the budget.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

So, if I understand correctly, you intend to do nothing?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mrs. Lavallée, Ms. Morgan.

Thank you to our witnesses, Madam Lévesque, Madam Morgan, and Madam McDonald, for appearing.

This meeting is adjourned.