If I may, I am going to quote Jeff Dayton-Johnson, from Dalhousie University. In a 2000 study for Heritage Canada, Mr. Dayton-Johnson was himself quoting UNESCO when he said that cultural products are not commodities like others. The study states that “…markets for cultural products cannot be expected to meet the conditions under which purely market-mediated production will be the most efficient.” Later, he writes: “Cultural products provide the raw material for a national conversation that allows the formation of national identity and for the construction of social cohesion.”
I feel that the contribution of the artistic and cultural sectors is front and centre in the two majority language groups in Canada. So I feel that encouraging a wider distribution of a cultural product like literature will allow us to work towards those objectives.