Industry Committee on May 11th, 2020

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Okay. Thank you.

In addition to that, you had announcements where you launched a $30-million public advertising campaign on physical distancing and COVID-19, with the purpose of advertising going to various media. Can you confirm what percentage of the spending also went to local and community media?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I could get you the breakdown. What I can tell you is that 97% of it went to Canadian media and, as I said earlier, to 900 print and 500 TV and radio stations across the country, in different languages—Farsi, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, French and English obviously.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Do you know, Minister—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for that round.

The next round of questions goes to MP Jowhari.

You have five minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to welcome both ministers and the department officials.

I'll be sharing my time with MP Hutchings. Given the fact that I only have two minutes now, I'll focus my questions on Minister Guilbeault.

Mr. Guilbeault, the $500-million investment in arts and culture was very welcome in my community. I have a very highly ethnic community, and the print media within the ethnic community plays a huge role in keeping the community informed, especially around times like this. Also, it is specifically focused on certain demographics. Seniors rely heavily on the ethnic media, especially the print media, not only to get information about activities in the community but also to get information about how they deal with and manage the COVID-19 challenges we are facing.

Just to give you a sense of this, I have three-plus Chinese print media and about five-plus Persian, three-plus Russian and two English print media alone, and two TV stations and one radio station. We were very excited, but when we actually did a deep dive in trying to figure out where they can apply, these are funds to be able to hire journalists, as you've highlighted, and we're really looking for funds to be able to keep them sustained.

What is happening is that the majority of their revenue was coming from small businesses that now don't have revenue, and they're not buying any advertising. I understand the wage subsidies and I understand they can go and get $40,000, but what are we doing under arts and culture and as part of that $500 million for the ethnic print media?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I thank the member from Richmond Hill for the question. It is a really important issue, which is why, as I was just saying, the ad campaign we did for $30 million on the COVID-19 was done in 12 different languages.

As part of the $500 million, there is $70 million that was set aside for local news media organizations across the country to help support them through this crisis, including third-language media across the country. Beyond the wage subsidy and beyond the $30 million, there's an extra $70 million that will go to help support these news organizations, on top of the other $50 million that I was talking about earlier on, which we adopted in the 2019 budget specifically for local media.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Minister. I'd appreciate some sort of guidance from your department for us to be able to reach these funds.

I yield the rest of my time to MP Hutchings.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Thank you.

Ministers, it's always a pleasure to see you here.

Minister Monsef, I think it's great that you agree with me—and that all of our colleagues around the table agree—on the importance of connectivity, for rural especially. It's interesting, because the previous government's connecting Canadians program connected 220,000 households between 2009 and 2012, at speeds of five megabits to one. They were estimating to do 280,000 households between 2015 and 2017, but our government upped that to 350,000 households.

Minister, in your comments, you mentioned that our announced funding of $6 billion is going toward Internet investments, and that is a contrast to the Conservative approach, which essentially leaves rural and remote communities to pay for these sizable infrastructure projects on their own. Can you tell us in a few minutes how you and our government are working with colleagues around the table to make sure that every single Canadian has access to affordable high-speed Internet and that it doesn't matter where they live?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, I'd like to thank MP Hutchings for her question and for her leadership. She brings the lens of small rural communities to the table, and it is a perspective that is appreciated and very helpful.

Colleagues on this call may disagree, but the philosophical approach to invest.... Colleagues like MP Masse believe that government should take on 100% of the cost. Some colleagues believe that the private sector should shoulder the cost. We, as Liberals, believe—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair. I did not say that government should pay 100% of the cost. I said that the government should use the money it received from the spectrum auction. There's a difference between the two.

We have a surplus of money in the current spectrum auction, and several have taken place under the Liberal tenure that have not been used, so—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

MP Masse, that is debate, so I'm going to allow the minister to continue for the last 11 seconds.

Thank you.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

We believe that government plays a big role in connecting Canadians. We believe in the role that the private sector plays, as well as other orders of government. Funds that go to the consolidated revenue fund go to health transfers, to social transfers. They fund other priorities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much, Minister. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have.

We will now begin the next round of questions.

Mr. Champoux, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I first want to thank the witnesses for being here with us.

I'd like to speak with Minister Guilbeault about aid provided to the news media, which are very shaken by the crisis. We know they were before the COVID-19 crisis, but this crisis obviously added to the misery they were already experiencing.

The government has put in place measures for businesses and a wage subsidy that I agree help a lot. However, in more concrete terms, Minister, your department has invested $30 million in advertising across Canada, which is the same amount that the Government of Quebec invested in advertising to help the media.

The $30 million you invested in advertising brought in about $1,500 for a local medium like the regional weekly at my home in Drummondville. That's more of a smile than a breath of fresh air. That's not what will allow our regional media to survive and get through the crisis.

In fact, Minister, here's what I want to ask you.

Would you consider investing more money in advertising, because that's what the regional media would like--but would you invest that money directly with the regional media rather than going through the agencies again, or Google when it comes to digital placement?

Would you consider that kind of quick help?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I thank the member for Drummondville for his question.

With regard to advertising, you will recall that your party asked us several times about investment in advertising, namely that there was not enough advertising in the Canadian media, or that there was too much.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I must correct you on that one.

I'm talking about the current crisis. This is something you could do very quickly.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Yes, I'm getting to it.

We ran a publicity campaign that was 97% invested in Canadian media.

Advertising is one of the elements, but I could tell you about the $70 million that was set aside for local media in the $500-million envelope that was announced last week.

As far as the tax credit is concerned, everything is now in place to give access to the $595 million that will be available.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Minister, my question is really this: would you be willing to discuss the possibility of investing new money in advertising, which would be directly targeted to regional or local media, which are really running out of steam right now?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I'm always open to discussion with the member from Drummondville.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

We will begin the next round of questions.

Mr. Masse, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The reason I feel so passionately about some of the questions I've asked is that I come from an area where people are often told they're equal but just not now. I have a problem with that.

I would like to ask Minister Monsef a follow-up question with regard to equality. What does she say to those people—and statistically it's mostly women in service sectors that are very vulnerable, seasonal work as well as part-time work—who do not qualify for employment insurance because they don't have enough hours because of the government policy that sets the employment insurance model, and then don't make enough money from the previous year to qualify for CERB benefits?

What would she like to say to those people right now?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, as a woman in politics committed to addressing those inequalities, I share my colleague's concerns and I most certainly share his need to address the inequality gaps.

To his question around ensuring supports for the most vulnerable, that's been the priority of our government in the response—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Why are those people not eligible if they don't make $5,000?

Right now, I represent many people who didn't make enough money for the $5,000 last year and they didn't make enough money for employment insurance. My riding has one of the highest rates of immigration and new Canadians, and one of the highest rates of poverty. We also have a series of other economic issues.

Why can't the minister and the government change the current model they have now so that these people will be entitled to either employment insurance or the CERB? What is stopping the Liberals from doing that?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, as I was saying, even before COVID we were committed to addressing those vulnerabilities. We lifted a million Canadians out of poverty. We provided affordable housing to a million households. We cut the child poverty rate by—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Why should somebody pay into employment insurance and not receive a benefit because of an arbitrary number of hours? Those things aren't actually helping individual persons. Why should somebody have to go to a part-time job or a job that does not meet their employment insurance requirements and have to pay that, and then later not be eligible for CERB?

I don't want to hear about other programs. Why is it $5,000? Why not $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 or no amount of work? They're denied both.