Evidence of meeting #85 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was théberge.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
—as a government, we have the courage to tackle difficult issues that the previous government—
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Alupa Clarke
Please, Ms. Joly, the member is asking you for the percentage of francophones in the country. You are the Minister of Canadian Heritage, so I think you should be able to tell us.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
What is the percentage of francophones in the country?
Conservative
December 7th, 2017 / 4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
It's the question I've been asking you for a while now but you haven't answered.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
What is the percentage of francophones in Canada? We have 8 million francophones.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Therefore, they would make up 22% or 23% of the population.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
How is it, then, that the deal you signed with Netflix provides for just 5% in francophone content and not 22%?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
As I mentioned, the agreement with Netflix isn't ideal, and I am aware of the sector's concerns.
However, in terms of support for francophone production, we have just invested millions of dollars in the Canada Media Fund, which supports all of the country's television production. Do you know how much the fund allocates to francophone production? Even though francophones make up 22% or 23% of the population, 30% of the fund goes to francophone production.
We were extremely mindful of the importance of French television production, so we reinvested in the Canada Media Fund, knowing that the revenues of the country's cable companies were dropping, thus reducing those companies' contributions to the fund. We heard the concerns of francophone television stakeholders and we made the necessary reinvestment.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
What is the next American company with which you plan to sign a deal setting aside 5% for francophone production?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
That's a valid question. We chose, as a government, to have the courage to modernize the Broadcasting Act, which dates back to 1991, in other words, pre-Internet. Nothing in the existing act, nothing in our current legislation, allows us to deal with the issue of digital platforms, from a communication systems standpoint.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I will repeat my question.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Consequently, we are going to modernize the act, and I am hopeful that we can work together to protect our culture and our francophone culture on the web.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I will repeat my question.
What is the next American company you will be signing a deal with?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Our focus is on modernizing our legislation. I plan to work with my counterpart Minister Bains to simultaneously modernize the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act. I have also asked the CRTC to examine how we can ensure support for the creation, production, and distribution of Canadian content.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
As we speak, Minister, are you negotiating agreements with other American companies?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
That is not one of our priorities at the moment. Our priority is truly on making sure we are able to modernize our legislation.
I hope to engage the sector in the modernization process.
Not only are we reviewing the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act, but we are also modernizing the Copyright Act as part of this major reform process. The last reform of the act created significant inequities and frustration across the cultural community. We believe in a much fairer treatment of our artists.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
What do you make of the statements and arguments of the 100 people who put down their signatures because because they objected to the deal you signed with Netflix? No one cares whether it focuses on culture or taxes. What matters is that the people who represent today's industry say that they are extremely worried, and even more so, about the agreement.
What's more, they fear that, if other agreements are signed, it will somewhat mark the end of francophone production in Canada.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Do you know what artists and members of the country's cultural sector remember, Mr. Généreux?
They vividly remember the cuts the Conservatives made to the cultural sector.
Conservative
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
They have an especially clear recollection of the Radio-Canada cuts—
Conservative
Liberal