The hon. member says Shawinigan. He makes fun of the name Shawinigan. There are a lot of people from Shawinigan who like that name.
The 150 families from Shawinigan that will come to Hamilton will be welcomed by Hamilton residents who will help them discover our region.
I see the level of understanding between our communities growing. It is a great idea and we must do more. We need to help Canadians rediscover this great country and make it easier on people to visit Montreal instead of Miami, Port Alberni instead of San Francisco, Cape Breton instead of Cape Cod.
We must work with the airlines, the bus companies and the railways to put Canadians on the road to rediscovering the greatness of their own country. The world lives in an age in which knowledge is power. We need to know ourselves better as Canadians because that will give us more power as Canadians and more power as a country.
We are committed to providing Canadians, particularly young Canadians, from every corner of the country an opportunity to experience the whole of what Canada has to offer.
We will also launch the Terra Nova project to allow Canadians to talk to each other not just face to face but through cyberspace. We will bring together the public and private sectors in a unique CD-ROM project which will tell the Canadian story in a new and exciting way.
We also intend to build on the Youth Link project which was launched recently by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and by me at a school in Winnipeg. We hooked up students speaking in French-
-with students attending Hamilton's Delta High School, students from a school in Hull, and students from a school in Dorval. They talked to each other. They did not talk about the Constitution or politics. They talked about music. They asked each other what they thought of such and such a musician, or they inquired about their favourite hockey team. They talked and were starting to get to know one another.
Quebec francophones did not know that there were students in Winnipeg who did all their school work in French, even though they were anglophones. English speaking students attending Hamilton's Delta High School were not aware of the fact that students in Dorval could go to an
Youth Link will give students a chance to exchange ideas with not only other students across the country but with young people around the world. The more we know about where we have come from as a nation, who we are as a people and what we have accomplished together, the more confident we can all be that we will make the right decisions about our future.
We have every reason to walk hand in hand on the road to Canada's future. We were always able to overcome every obstacle and we are now the society that is best equipped to face the next millennium.
Our strength lies in our diversity. In the context of an increasingly greater worldwide economic integration, Canada offers to the world community the image of a modern, bilingual and openly multicultural society, a society reflecting the world itself.
The francophonie is a significant feature of the Canadian diversity. I recently met with provincial premiers in Winnipeg and we discussed how such a great asset it is to have people speaking French in every province.
Ten years ago we probably would not have had the kind of meeting we had in Winnipeg. Ministers from across the country came together and said that being able to speak in both languages in their province was not an economic drag but an economic plus. They were positioned to bid for international contracts and bring people together because they could offer the kind of linguistic capacity the world is looking for.
This major economic asset is just now beginning to be recognized throughout the country, which was not the case when we adopted bilingualism policies during the 1970s.
People want to take active charge of their own development, and this is why we will be organizing an economic forum of the francophone communities throughout this country which will take place this summer in the Beauce region.
This economic forum will foster the economic development of Canada's francophone communities, making every possible competitive opportunity available. Indeed the federal government will need to meet our commitments to help these communities to develop and grow. To show you how serious we are, both the President of Treasury Board and I as Minister of Canadian Heritage, are committed to delivering the goods relating to the Official Languages Act. I shall be working in close conjunction with the President of Treasury Board to ensure that we as a government meet our obligations.
Canada is about building hope and a dream for people around the world who look to us for inspiration and who look to us to make our differences work. Canada is bigger than the sum of its parts. We have come to learn through our own experiences and our history that even if culture and tradition distinguish people from each other, the bonds between us can be strong and unbreakable when we work together to build each other up instead of tearing each other down.
Canada is about people. It is also about land. We are proud to be the second largest country in the world. We are proud to be the country that holds 20 per cent of the world's fresh water, fresh water that will be an important instrument into the 21st century.
We are the first country to have established a national parks service. The government is proud to have a Prime Minister who created more national parks than any other Canadian. That is why we are committed to giving all of Canada's natural regions a national park by the year 2000.
Our ancestors left us a tremendous natural legacy. It is now our duty to build on that legacy for our children and our grandchildren.
Canada is both a geographical and a cultural space, and a number of our artists have gone beyond our borders to conquer the world, as we were delighted to see last night in Los Angeles. Our artists must be assured of pride of place in their own markets and their work must be made accessible to the entire population. As well, our
artists must have exclusive ownership of what they produce. We must bring our copyright law up to date, so that there is a proper balance between the needs of creators and the needs of consumers.
Last night in Los Angeles Canadians were honoured when some of the largest recognized entertainment awards in the world went to Canadians. Canadians also know that more than 20 years ago governments through policy had the courage to make sure Canadian lyrics and Canadian music would have a chance to be heard in Canada and around the world.
When Canadian content rules were introduced there were naysayers, downplayers, the negatives and the nos, but the results of those policies are coming to fruition in what we saw last night. Joni Mitchell, Charles Dutoit, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Daniel Lanois and Rob McConnell are Grammy winners not just because of their incredible talent but because their country's cultural policies supported them at a time when it was needed.
We must continue to stand up for our singers, our songwriters and all our artists. Cultural institutions like the CBC, the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada are essential in understanding Canadians and in telling Canadian stories. We will maintain the vitality of these institutions.
The Juneau committee report calls for more distinctively Canadian programming in quality and quantity. Let me assure Canadians we have heard that message loud and clear.
As a country, Canada is by far the most open to foreign cultures. This openness is a source of enrichment, but the Government of Canada must ensure that Canadian culture is promoted and developed.
Proud of our past, we are a people that looks to the future.
An hon. member just mentioned ADISQ. Mr. Speaker, I happened to meet some representatives of ADISQ the other day in Montreal. What struck me was that ADISQ works with all the other record companies in Canada-in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal-because they realize that when you are in that kind of small business, there is strength in numbers. We have a music culture in Canada today, thanks to the policies we set as Canadians. Canadian content rules guarantee that Canadians can listen to their own songs, not just to what comes from the United States.
Above all, we are a nation of builders. We were when we built a new world. We will be again as we start a new millennium. Let us all work together. Let the courage and pride of each Canadian be an inspiration to his or her fellow citizens.
Why do we have universal health care in Canada?