Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring coherence to this debate and to speak to Bill C-103. Bill C-103 will play a major role in maintaining a vibrant and flourishing Canadian magazine industry. I want to use my time to present a broader perspective of the government's ongoing commitment to this industry.
This bill should be understood in the context of a long-established tradition of government support to the Canadian magazine industry as well as the industry's contribution to Canada's economy. More important, in a country where natural geography makes communication difficult, magazines play a key unifying role.
Canadian periodicals are an essential medium of cultural expression for Canadians. They serve as channels for conveying Canadian ideas, information and values. They are an integral part of the process whereby Canadians define themselves as a nation.
Beyond the direct social and cultural impact of the Canadian magazine industry, there are sizeable indirect effects which contribute to the smooth functioning of the Canadian economy.
Unfortunately Canadian magazines are confronted with a series of unique challenges: massive penetration of the Canadian market by imported magazines; the relatively small size of the Canadian population and its dispersion over vast territory; the openness of Canadians to foreign cultural products; the effect of the cover prices of imported magazines on the Canadian price structure; and the impact of overflow advertising on the potential advertising market in Canada.
Even if the magazine industry has flourished culturally with over 1,300 titles, its financial position is fragile with overall pre-tax profits of less than 6 per cent of revenues of $795 million in 1993-94.
The Canadian government has supported the domestic magazine industry and will continue to do so for many reasons. The principal reason is the importance that Canadians place on having a means of expressing their unique identity and the difficult and challenging environment the Canadian magazine industry faces.
The need for structural measures of support for the Canadian magazine industry has long been recognized by successive Canadian governments. Over the years a number of policy and program instruments have been designed and put into place to help ensure the development of the Canadian magazine industry while not restricting the sale of imported periodicals in Canada.
My friends across the way who speak to this issue are somehow misguided. We are doing much collectively to provide a dynamic and original culture which nurtures our national identity. Questions such as, what is culture, or do we have a single overarching cultural policy, may be good subjects for discussion. The truth is that cultural challenges in Canada have always been addressed by specific cultural policies put together by governments.
If we look at cultural policy goals pursued by consecutive or successive Canadian governments over more than half a century, their consistency is remarkable. Specific policy objectives developed by a succession of governments clearly reflected the reality of an original Canadian culture. Uppermost among these objectives is Canadian ownership and control of cultural enterprises, a made in Canada broadcasting system, the protection of sovereignty in the arts, cultural expression, the creation of an environment enabling cultural industries to sustain themselves and the recognition on the world stage of Canada's artistic and cultural accomplishments. Our global cultural policy was designed to promote the development of a diverse yet distinctive Canadian culture fostering mutual understanding, identity and quality of life.
Successive governments have recognized that Canada with its two official languages benefits from easy access to two of the greatest cultures in the world. The presence of our First Nations peoples and the diverse origins of our population have been justifiably looked upon as a fertile source of inspiration.
Canadian governments have also understood the influence of the United States on Canada's culture and identity. On one hand the fabric of our society can be enriched by our direct access to American cultural products and means of expression. On the other hand, this same access can weaken our ability to create and express ourselves in a distinctly Canadian fashion in our own country.
Canadian governments could see the evidence that Canadians do want Canadian cultural products and that Canadians are prepared to pay a price for them. Canadians also accept that government has a role in striking the right balance between supports to Canadian cultural development and access to other cultures. In short, Canadian governments are involved in cultural policy because the public interest is at stake.
Perhaps more than anything else, Canadian culture is vulnerable. We said in the red book:
Culture is the very essence of national identity, the bedrock of national sovereignty and national pride-. At a time when globalization and the information and communications revolution are erasing national borders, Canada needs more than ever to commit itself to cultural development.
Canadian culture is also the substance and the reflection of who we are and what we form as a people. Our landscape is part of it; our tastes, our languages, our pastimes, the way we view the world, these all enter in. Our culture and our life as a nation are intertwined. As the reflection of who we are, our cultural expression becomes the aggregate of our voices and creative energies. For those reasons alone, Canada's cultural development and the quality of its cultural expression are worthy of government's attention.
My Reform friend said governments should stay out. But we know that Canadians are enthusiastic about the state of the arts in Canada and the involvement of all governments in that state of the arts. The quality and abundance of creative work and performance have never been higher. I think my friend noted that. Strength and certainty are now evident in the work of our writers, our artists, our performers. We celebrate their achievements as well as their commitment, a commitment after all to ourselves.
As a society we wish to reward our artists. They need not only our interest and attention, but also material conditions within which they can engage in their work and their art. In so doing, they can offer all of us a better chance to reach our own potential as a people and as individuals. I have many friends in the arts world and I know of individuals who are struggling to keep body and soul together and bread on the table.
Culture is a complex whole. It includes the knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs and all other capabilities and habits acquired by the members of a particular society. Like other fundamental concepts, culture can only be understood by a familiarity with the realities it summarizes. It may be difficult to define American, French or Canadian culture, but the artistic products of those cultures, their books, magazines and films for example, can readily reflect and inform the cultures of which they are products.
Canadians are avid consumers of cultural products. After the Dutch, we are the second highest per capita purchasers of records and tapes in the world. We are also among the world's great film and movie goers.
Canadian culture flourishes in our major cities. It thrives in every hamlet and draws strength from every region. It comes from passion, talent, commitment and hard work. The wonder of Canadian culture in all its diversity is its ability to expand our horizons as individuals and to bring us together as human beings and as a society. Our culture, our Canadian, diverse, original culture, is part of our identity and greatness. We must stand on guard for it. It is the soul of our country.
Our bookstores, our news stands, our record shops, cinemas and television screens testify to Canada's position as one of the greatest importers of cultural products in the world. We enjoy our access to other cultures. However, we repeatedly ask ourselves whether there should not be a more normal balance between Canadian perspectives and those from elsewhere. This is the crux of the bill.
Together, our arts and cultural industries contribute over $24 billion to the gross domestic product or 4 per cent of the GDP of the entire economy, and important for us, 660,000 jobs. This did not happen by accident. This did not happen, as our friend across the way would say, by letting the individuals do it. It was the result of a combination of the desire and determination of successive governments and the great talent which exists in our country.
The challenges facing the Canadian market for cultural content are growing increasingly complex every day. There can be little doubt that today's reality of fiscal restraint will continue to affect our future activities. Policy priorities change to take account of new challenges, world trends and windows of opportunity. The goals to be met by those priorities however should not change. The scene changes, the values do not.
This is important work, work which government has been doing successfully for years through such policy tools as public cultural institutions, support measures, and legislation and regulation. In fact, the development of legislative and regulatory measures has been particularly effective in promoting Canadian cultural sovereignty. Few measures have been more efficient than those dealing with Canadian content.
Canada has not been the only country to implement such legislative and regulatory measures. For example, specific restrictions are common for publishing, film and videos in countries like Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico and Australia. Need I go on?
Venezuela has specific policies and requirements for newspapers and periodical publishing. In film and video, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland maintain varying degrees of restrictions on inward investment. Mexico maintains limitations in film and video, broadcasting and periodical publishing. Brazil has grouped television, radio and the print media as one of the strategic industries to which it applies the same foreign investment restrictions.
We cannot go by a rule which says the one with the deepest pockets wins. As a market, Canada is one-tenth the size of the United States. The cost of producing a film or television program is
the same in Canada as it is in the U.S. Our ability to recover those costs is one-tenth.
I must emphasize that it is never an issue of keeping other products out. That is not the intent of this bill. Canada is the most open country when it comes to enjoying the cultural products of other countries. The issue is ensuring the development and distribution of Canadian content and ensuring that Canadians know it is there and they have access to it.
The Canadian government has been consistent. Its magazine policy has not changed. I will say this for the information of the Reform members who spoke against this, with these amendments to the Excise Tax Act and the Income Tax Act, the federal government is modernizing its policy instruments. In this way, the entire range of government policy and program instruments can better achieve the overall objective of a vital and flourishing Canadian magazine industry.
Those in the industry are depending on those of us in this House to ensure that Bill C-103 gets swift passage.