Thank you for pointing out how long the process is.
The act was modernized in 2012. Of course, the recommendations of several commissions and committees were taken into consideration. In 2011, for example, representatives of the academic community said that the new act was working to pay royalties to copyright holders. The act included a five-year deadline for reviewing it, and so in 2017, the work began. We are now in 2023, but nothing has come of it. As you said, both the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology submitted very good reports.
The situation is critical today. I would point out that the Canadian book and publishing industry contributes $750 million to the country's gross domestic product and that book sales bring in $2 billion. The industry is in crisis, for one thing, because the outlets in the academic world are shrinking before our eyes. We are talking about a $200 million loss in ten years, a direct loss for which there has never been any compensation.
The risk is that the education sector of tomorrow will no longer be teaching Canadian content, because Canadian publishers have will quite simply disappeared. The field is thus being left open to American, English or French publishers, who will be able to occupy our classrooms, and this is absolutely scandalous.
Mr. Champagne, in whose hand the pen sits for making the legislative changes, should be asked why has not yet done anything about this. He is constantly being asked to do it.