Madam Speaker, as official opposition critic for heritage and cultural industries, I cannot stop myself from referring to the throne speech in my response to the budget speech.
What is written in the conclusion to the throne speech must be noted as something of great importance to the cultural industries, "Culture is at the core of our identity as Canadians. The Government is committed to strong Canadian cultural industries". This speech also confirms the government's desire to ensure the viability of the CBC, the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada. The statements of principle in the Minister of Finance's speech are, however, unequivocal. The Liberals want to reduce expenditures, while at the same time encouraging improved job prospects. Such a contradiction! Regrowth and reducing expenditures in the same breath. They claim to have a strategy which works via reallocation.
Let us be serious now. Contradictions do not belong in administration. The Liberals are full of great statements of intent, which we all know very well they have no intention of putting into practice. This government's sole objective is to make cuts, and its true cultural policy is to make cuts in culture. With a policy applied to strategic sectors that is threatening social cohesion through massive budget cuts, and threatening economic growth through a systematic layoff policy, we cannot look at the future with any hope.
Yet, if there is one sector that is strategic for maintaining cohesion and social equilibrium in Canada and in Quebec, it is culture. And what is this government doing? In the Liberal Party of Canada's budget, national cultural institutions are facing cuts of 9.7 per cent. Telefilm Canada, the NFB and the National Archives are the most affected, moreover. Let us take an example. The CBC alone is being hit the hardest, with cuts of $102 million between fiscal 1995-96 and fiscal 1996-97. According to Mr. Beatty, its president, there will be additional cuts of $48 million.
Telefilm Canada will face cuts of $19 million in the upcoming fiscal year just when it is looking at the possibility of going multimedia. The National Film Board alone will be hit with cuts of $10 million on top of the $16 million cuts in the 1994-95 budget.
The National Archives will be cut by $11 million. Publishing support programs will be cut by $14 million, and the heritage and cultural development program will cut by $22 million in the coming fiscal year. Contributions to the cultural infrastructures project will be cut by 69 per cent in 1996-97, on top of the 44 per cent in 1995-96. This is totally unacceptable.
I ask this House if this the expression of a desire to develop cultural industries in Quebec and Canada. How can the Liberals claim to be promoting job creation with such cuts? How do we assure the long term viability of the CBC, the NFB and Telefilm Canada? When the government systematically cuts the operating budgets of these organizations, there is no guarantee of a future.
When everyone knows the importance of our cultural institutions, how do we convince the government that it is heading in the wrong direction? This lack of political will to develop the cultural industries is having a dramatic impact, let us face the facts, on lost jobs.
The $227 million cut from the CBC since 1995 represents 2,400 lost jobs, and the forecast cuts of $150 million between 1996 and 1999 will mean another 2,500 positions, making a total of 4,900 jobs lost in the years the government is giving expression to its alleged intention to develop Canada's cultural industries.
Such job losses have a significant impact on the cultural fabric of society in Quebec and Canada. Culture is made up of real people: actors, screenwriters, authors, musicians, performers, composers, model makers, make-up artists, costume designers, scenic artists, and others. They are the raw material of cultural creation and production. The very essence of our identity could be ruined and driven to despair by this Liberal government's extensive cuts and lack of strategy, vision and policy in cultural matters.
The prospect of an Anglo-American culture threatens our culture, as everyone knows. The Canadian Minister of Finance's budget is a major culprit, as it jeopardizes the very existence of our cultural industries.
That is one of the reasons why the Government of Quebec claims full responsibility for the management of its share of the federal funds allocated to cultural industries. The federal government's estimates for heritage and cultural industries directly threaten all of us as a culture. In these circumstances, the Bloc Quebecois, as the official opposition, urges Ottawa to withdraw from the whole area of culture and communications. While the Government of Quebec was increasing its contribution to cultural funding by 4 per cent a year and its share of all public expenditures affecting Quebec culture from 32 to 37 per cent, the federal government's contribution fell from 45 per cent in 1989-90 to 34 per cent five years later.
According to Louise Beaudoin, Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications and Minister responsible for the Administration of the Charter of the French Language, although Quebec makes the greatest effort in Canada, it is not enough to compensate for the federal government's gradual withdrawal from culture. It is certainly logical.
At a time when Quebec is taking action and increasing its budgets to ensure the viability and development of its culture, the federal government continues to withdraw and to cut funding. The Government of Quebec has no use for the more or less political goals pursued by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the distribution of millions of flags. At a time when everything is being cut, they suddenly found $17 million and hired 10 full time telephone operators to handle callers who want the flags promised to them by some deputy minister. As we speak, at a time when everybody is being hit by budget cuts, including those who create our culture, who guarantee our identity and development, they have just spent close to $7 million.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ottawa River, the federal government plans to reduce the funds spent on culture, something that would greatly compromise our cultural future.
In closing, this budget shows once again the government's inconsistency and lack of vision and respect for Quebec culture. We must, however, admit that the federal Liberal government is true to itself, making and breaking its own promises as it pleases.