Public Accounts Committee on June 1st, 2026

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Kuruc, you're out of time.

Ms. Montminy, if you have a brief statement or a brief comment, you can give it. I'm sure we'll come back to Mr. Kuruc later, though.

[Joëlle Montminy]

I have nothing to add right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you.

We'll find some time for you later, Mr. Kuruc, to pick that up again.

Ms. Yip, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you for coming today.

Which community sectors received the largest share of funding in the years that were studied?

[Francis Bilodeau]

Can you expand on “community sectors”?

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Which cultural or community sector received the largest share of funding in the years studied?

[Joëlle Montminy]

In the cultural sector, the audiovisual sector is probably the area that receives the most direct support from the government. For instance, we fund the Canada Media Fund, which is an entity that supports independent production. It's an independent fund that works with funds that come from the regulatory contributions of the cable companies as well. There's a large fund there that supports audiovisual.

Of course, the government also supports Telefilm Canada. Last year, for instance, Telefilm Canada received an increase of $50 million, for a total budget of $150 million.

I would say the audiovisual sector, which is a large sector that creates significant employment and generates a high level of return on investment in terms of GDP, receives the most funding in the cultural sector.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

What about in terms of smaller funding like journalism, particularly ethnic media?

[Francis Bilodeau]

At a very high level, if you look at how funding breaks down in the 2025-26 numbers in front of you, they're roughly proportional, if I were to go to the past year. The arts and culture sectors would account for probably around a third of total funding, and in sports slightly less than that.

In the year that I'm looking at, with about $2 billion, you'd have about $430 million for creativity in the arts, about $297 million for sports and $208 million for diversity and inclusion, and then official languages would have accounted for about $600 million. Within creativity and the arts, the local journalism initiative is one example that you were pointing to. Roughly $20 million is directly invested in that. There's also funding for the book fund, for the Canada Media Fund and obviously for the audiovisual sector, which would go through the Canada Media Fund but also through funding for TV5, for example.

Audiovisual, as part of arts and culture, as Joëlle was mentioning, is probably the largest recipient of our funding, but there are also supports for a number of other cultural and artistic sectors.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Just to repeat it again, it's one-third for audiovisual arts and culture.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I would say that arts and culture generally, of the total funding in a year, would be 25% to one-third of our funding.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Then there's a smaller amount for sports.

[Francis Bilodeau]

For sports—I'm looking at last year—there's been a significant.... I have the more perfect breakdown. Sports would have accounted for 15% of our funding in the 2024-25 public accounts period, which you're mentioning. Obviously there was a significant announcement for sport recently, with an injection of $750 million for the sport system, which is increasing the proportion.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

What proportions of funds were directed to local or community initiatives rather than large national organizations? This matters a lot to my riding of Scarborough—Agincourt, because I have a lot of smaller organizations that could really use funding.

[Francis Bilodeau]

We could get you a more precise breakdown, but I would say that on average, our programs tend to target smaller organizations. The average grant size in the department is below $200,000, and a lot of the grants are in smaller locally based organizations.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Brown, you touched on diversity and inclusion with I believe Mr. McKinnon's question. Maybe it was inadvertent, however. What investment has been made in the anti-racism secretariat?

[Andrew Brown]

One piece of great news was in the spring economic update, which announced that there would be a renewal of funding for the multiculturalism and anti-racism program, which was otherwise ending at the end of the last fiscal year. A total of $66 million over two years was announced at that time. That's going to help us continue to invest in multiculturalism and anti-racism initiatives across the country. As you just heard, the vast majority of those involve small community-based organizations.

With respect to the anti-racism secretariat, that's also an organization that received some additional funding through the spring economic update. I'm not sure of the exact amount of funding there, but my understanding is that it is a couple of million dollars. It is an organization that was previously with Canadian Heritage and was transferred to Employment and Social Development Canada in 2024, if I don't mistake the year. We are currently working with ESDC with the intent of bringing the anti-racism secretariat back to Canadian Heritage so that it can be once again located more closely to the policy lead on anti-racism work.

The anti-racism secretariat's work is continuing. To the extent that I'm familiar with some of that work, they have continued engagement efforts across the country and internal to the federal government, bringing a framework of anti-racism to the work we do every day.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you.

I'm afraid that is the time, Ms. Yip. I apologize for that.

Mr. Lemire, you have the floor for three minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm fascinated to see that all the Liberal questions today are about ethnic issues. This is part of the promotion of multiculturalism, which doesn't foster a sense of community. The government wants to fund community initiatives in a way that promotes isolation rather than a vision of living together, whether in Quebec or across Canada. Obviously, the department is on board with this.

I don't know if it's because of the interpretation, but I heard mention of “ethnic media” funded by the department. However, in the budget statement, the government indicated its intention to consult before implementing a potential tax credit to support journalism workers in the regions. We're not even supporting our regional media. It's a disaster. They're all on life support, particularly in Quebec. Yet, we're going to increase funding for “ethnic media” so that people will increasingly live in a spirit of ghettoization.

Is that really Canadian Heritage's vision?

When will you finally fund independent regional media to save regional news in the best interest of the entire population?

[Francis Bilodeau]

The issue of the health of news media is at the heart of our mission. We are focusing a great deal of attention on this issue. There are funding mechanisms that support journalism initiatives across the country. The department supports regional media, but it also looks at the system as a whole, taking into account the Online News Act as well as the structure—

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Back home in my riding, Radio-Canada has not had its newscast since 2018, despite the fact that the act states that every region must be represented. So there is a major problem. That's the Crown corporation. One can imagine just how vulnerable independent media have become. We're sharing a budget in which a major English-language player has taken 70% of the funds.

I want to ask you another question about regional festivals. We see that the department is increasingly withdrawing from this type of event. The very survival of what makes the regions diverse and beautiful depends on festivals in the villages. Whether it's the Foire gourmande or H2O le festival, these organizations have lost a tremendous amount of funding, particularly because you believe that an artist must absolutely come from the region.

However, there are fewer artists in Abitibi‑Témiscamingue. The vitality of our festivals and their ability to attract crowds depend in particular on the presence of nationally renowned artists, such as those from Quebec. In Ottawa, Quebec is considered a region, but an artist from Montreal performing in Ville‑Marie is not considered a local artist. They cannot receive funding, and it cannot contribute to the success of an event.

Festival funding has been cut, which means the very survival of these tourism events is at stake.

When will you restore funding for our major cultural events in the regions?

[Francis Bilodeau]

To quickly come back to your question about newspapers, electronic media have clearly changed their traditional business and revenue model, which is now more difficult to apply. So we're looking at this issue as well as the rationale behind Bill C‑18.

As far as local festivals are concerned, this is certainly a sector where funding continues to be available.

Ms. Montminy is very involved in this sector. Do you want to add anything, Ms. Montminy?

[Joëlle Montminy]

We have allocated investments in budget 2025 to increase funding for local and community festivals. We have also reinvested in the program that funds major festivals, such as jazz and blues festivals. So there were investments in budget 2025 to continue increasing funding.

What you're referring to is the program that supports community festivals, for which there is indeed a high level of demand. The distribution of funding has led to some festivals experiencing a decrease in funding. We know that, since the COVID‑19 pandemic, costs have also risen for many organizations. We're very aware of this, and we're trying as much as possible to continue supporting the vitality of these festivals, which are very important in the regions.

As for the eligibility of artists to participate in festivals—specifically whether they must be local or Canadian—again, this depends on the program. In the major festivals program, there may be artists from all over, but in the community festival program, one component stipulates that artists must be local.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Please be brief, Mr. Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Can I ask for a written response?