Industry Committee on May 11th, 2020

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

Madam Chair, MP Masse has been around for a long time, as he says, but he's never seen a crisis like this. We are doing everything we can to support as many Canadians as possible in these unprecedented times.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

Now we are moving into the third round of questions, and the first five-minute round goes to MP Dreeshen.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

My questions will actually be going to Minister Guilbeault.

Mr. Minister, in addition to the big city events across the country, COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of literally hundreds of rodeos, community fairs, music festivals and farm fairs and exhibitions, all of which are of great economic importance to the local areas, to our local agriculture societies, to our seasonal entertainers, to our local merchants as well as to individual craft and food vendors.

As heritage minister, just a few moments ago you were struggling to define what western heritage is and how it affects these small town communities. I say this because, as western Canadians, we understand and cherish our pioneer spirit, those strong and gentle hands that built this country, Canada's true environmentalists, its farmers and its ranchers, its surveyors and the fur traders who opened up the west, the merchants and the labourers who kept commerce going, and the brave military men and women who have fought and continue to fight to keep this land strong and free. That's our western heritage. That's what we're talking about.

Earlier you talked about how you're going to be able to connect and help with the arts. It was said that you had written three books. Although my French isn't very good to catch what the titles were, I certainly got the gist of what Ms. Rempel Garner was talking about earlier. I've been a patron of the Calgary Opera, local theatres and the CFL for 20 years, but believe me, it's our oil and gas sector that funds the arts in this country, and it has been attacked by the current government. I am extremely frustrated because of those types of things.

Over my shoulder—and I know you're not supposed to use props—is a photograph of my grandparents' neighbour, Jim Ross and his Calgary Stampede championship-winning rig and his teammates. He was the man the singing legend Wilf Carter used to sing about. Central Alberta is home to countless rodeo men and women who use their knowledge and their skill in normal ranch-hand routines and they display this expertise to the world.

To the minister, are you aware of the significance of our western way of life? Will you stand firmly against self-promoting celebrities in preserving our heritage to help bridge the rural-urban divide as we all work through these challenging times?

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

I thank the member for Red Deer for his question and for his passion for the arts and culture, which we have in common.

Heritage is an issue for all Canadians, in all of its diversity and distinction across the country. Our goal is to help arts and cultural organizations across the country to make it through this crisis, regardless of where they are.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you.

You indicated there are going to be funding announcements. There are very few details, which is sort of the order of the day for what we can expect.

Is there a firm deadline to ensure that these funds can get out as soon as possible, preferably in the next couple of weeks?

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

That's our goal, absolutely.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

The Public Health Agency of Canada has posted guidelines aimed at helping event planners figure out whether to cancel mass gatherings of people.

When will this government move forward to assist the small fairs and their associated events, which represent such a critical part of Canada's heritage, so that they have a chance to keep their doors open as we move past this community lockdown?

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

As I said, last week we unveiled details of how the money would be spent to help many different types of arts, heritage and cultural organizations across the country.

I can give you a clear example of where we're helping Albertan organizations more than we would normally for the rest of the country. On the sports side of things, we decided to allocate the money to provinces, not in relation to the number of people in the province but in relation to the number of provincial sports organizations. To its credit, Alberta has way more provincial sports organizations than many other Canadian provinces or territories. Therefore, Alberta will be getting a bigger share of the sports money, that aid, than it would under normal federal-provincial agreements solely based on population.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you, but—

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

You wanted a clear example of something that the federal government is doing to help Albertans, so there you go.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Okay, I appreciate that.

Of course, going back to what I was saying before, we have the attacks on our oil and gas. We have the same type of thing with animal rights activists who are going after our agriculture. This rural-urban divide is something that's extremely critical, so I hope you're going to be paying attention—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

MP Dreeshen.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you. Unfortunately, that's the end of your time.

Our next five-minute round goes to MP Lambropoulos.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

First, I thank both ministers for being here today. Thank you so much for being here and answering our questions.

My first question is for Minister Guilbeault.

There are many industries in Montreal that are related to tourism.

Obviously, we have a lot of cultural festivals. Every summer we have a jazz festival and a Just for Laughs festival. We have many festivals. This is not only going to affect the festivals themselves, but it's going to affect the restaurant businesses, the nightlife businesses, and as was mentioned earlier, hotels.

Montreal is going to be severely impacted by what's going on, especially with the projections that came out on Friday with regard to Quebec and COVID-19. We can see that if we reopen our society, it's going to be extremely dangerous for many people. I believe that we're probably going to remain closed for a much longer period than expected.

First of all, what do you think the impacts will be on these different industries I just mentioned? Do you have any idea what the losses will be for Montreal specifically? Also, what are we going to be doing in the future? Do you see us putting forward more money in order to help support these industries over the summer months?

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

I thank the member for Saint-Laurent for the question.

As an environmentalist, I tend to look at things as ecosystems. Frankly, I would do the same with regard to the arts, hospitality sector and restaurants. They go hand in hand. They were among the first sectors that were hit—and tourism, obviously—and they are probably going to be the last ones to come back to normal, or a new normal.

That is why our government has been looking at this with an ecosystemic approach: What can I do on the heritage side of things in collaboration with what my colleague Hon. Mélanie Joly can do on the tourism side of things, and what my colleague Hon. Mary Ng can do on the small and medium-sized businesses side of things, so that once we make it through this crisis, our ecosystems are still intact and we are able to pick it up and start running again?

In answer to your second question, we do not know the scale of the economic impacts in the coming months. We are starting to have some idea, but we will need to have more information.

I want to quickly quote the Montreal board of trade, which saluted our $500-million aid package that was announced last week for arts, culture and sports organizations as something that will be significant for Montreal and the greater Montreal communities.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

As well, obviously, our Olympians were getting ready for summer 2020, and it's not going to be happening this year. What are the effects on them and how are we trying to help? Can you be more specific as to how we're helping Team Canada this year?

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

Yes, and thank you for the question.

As I said, of the $500 million, $72 million will go to the sports sector. Of that $72 million, roughly half will go to national federations such as Sport Canada and different types of sports federations. The other half will go to provincial and territorial organizations. Through our partnership with them, the money will be flowing through provinces and territories.

There's also $5 million that we set aside to help our athletes prepare for the next Olympics. The postponement of the Olympics created all sorts of logistical and financial problems for our athletes, so we wanted to set aside some money to make sure we could be there for them.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much.

For Maryam Monsef, obviously women and the status of women is something that is very important to me, so I'm actually going to take advantage of the fact that you're here with us today to ask you a couple of questions about the women who are being most affected at home [Technical difficulty—Editor] may be dangerous to their well-being and to that of their children, so that women can remain as safe as possible [Technical difficulty—Editor] even if they're in dangerous situations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I'm going to pause.

MP Lambropoulos, you're cutting out. Is it possible for you to repeat your question?

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

I'm sorry.

For Maryam Monsef, I don't know what you heard, but I'll repeat the whole thing. A lot of women are in a really dangerous spot right now, being at home, unfortunately. Their children are also in danger. What is our government doing to make sure, during this period of time when people are working from home, that Canadians, especially women and children in Canada, can maintain their safety?

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

Madam Chair, I understood the question. It is a pretty important question, so I'll leave it to you to determine how much time I have to answer it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Unfortunately, that is all the time we have for MP Lambropoulos, and I wouldn't want to give you 10 seconds to answer such an important question.

With that, we are at 7:30, and I want to verify with the ministers. I understood that according to the schedule they had to leave at 7:30. I wanted to know if that is still the case or if they're able to stay.

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

Madam Chair, if there is a woman suffering abuse in her home right now and you're talking to her via Zoom, there is a hand signal that's been created by the Canadian Women's Foundation. If you see this signal, you can check in on her, or you can connect to a shelter in your community or a women's organization and get her the help.

We're supporting over 400 shelters and over 150 sexual assault centres across the country, in addition to those in Quebec, so if you're suffering in silence and you think that right now there's nowhere to go, there are thousands of Canadians across the country whose doors are open to you. They will keep you and your loved ones safe. You don't have to stay in an abusive relationship.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you, Minister.

For the two ministers, are you able to stay for additional questions? According to the schedule, you had to leave at 7:30. I just want to verify.