Mr. Speaker, the Department of Canadian Heritage has taken on the appearance of a dying turbot flip-flopping on the slippery decks of a trawler under siege. There is no focus, no direction and no guidance from the minister who continues to be AWOL, awfully weak and out of the loop.
What a string of broken election promises. There is the broken promise of new copyright legislation due last spring; the broken promise to Sports Canada for secured funding for amateur sport; the broken promise to assist the Canada Council as it refocuses its activities; the broken promise for a cultural policy review; and the broken promise to give future direction to the CBC.
Canadian cultural organizations need guidance to shepherd them into greater reliance on themselves and the private sector, but the government is failing to provide that leadership.
What has changed since the Tories? Nothing. The minister is having so many problems in his department that he has appointed a former Tory cabinet minister to give him a hand. And will he become the next fall guy in a government that no longer seems to know the difference between a Liberal and a Tory?