Good evening.
My name's Martin Vallières. I'm Vice-President of Les Éditions CEC. I'm in charge of the elementary and secondary sectors. I also handle digital development.
I'm very concerned about the digital issue, as well as exceptions for education. I don't know if you're aware, but the Government of Quebec recently announced an investment of $168 million in a digital action plan for education. Within five years, nearly $1 billion will be invested in that action plan, in infrastructure and in training. That's important to us.
Regarding the digital age that is at our doorstep, it's not at our doorsteps. It's in our schools, and that will accelerate significantly. You know, there is a trend that you're probably aware of, namely digital platforms for sharing content among students and teachers, and between students and professors. It's pretty well the fashion and it will certainly increase with companies like Google offering sharing platforms, along with many others. Even school boards have their own platforms.
Imagine all that with the education exceptions in the Copyright Act. In that context, it seems clear to me that those systems, those facilitators of content dissemination can jeopardize the capacity of a publishing house, which is a privileged place for creation, to recover its investments, which are increasingly huge due, in fact, to the digital age. There is a demand for more, consumers want more. It takes more multimedia content and a lot of other things. Those creators, our authors, are also entitled to their fair share. If we don't remove those education exceptions, that's what I think will happen.
Also, don't forget citizenship education at school. What do we want to teach our young people when our own country promotes users and consumerism over creators and cultural heritage? Doesn't the promotion of knowledge start with respect for copyrights, with no exception?