Mr. Speaker, today, many representatives of national cultural institutions and arts organizations are participating in a cultural sector summit to discuss the future of the artistic community.
In the meantime, the federal government seeks to help spread Canadian culture through its foreign policy. How can it make such a claim when, at the national level, it is slashing the arts and culture budgets, in particular at Telefilm and the CBC?
This government even has the nerve to undertake phoney, improvised and botched consultations through the Canada Council to ask artists where it should make further cuts.
The heritage minister's complicity speaks volumes about this government's respect for culture and the artistic community.