Mr. Speaker, about a year ago, when the House had to vote on the bill to implement the WTO agreements, we had to look, among other things, at the federal Copyright Act. At the time, we were stunned to see how obsolete and outdated the legislation was.
If I am not mistaken, it had been almost 50 years since the act had been last reviewed. It is a good thing the government, through its heritage minister, proposes to update this legislation, to provide better protection to authors and performers, so that the artists who make culture a central element in our country, particularly in Quebec, can finally get a return on their work.
We must not think that Canada is an innovator, since at least fifty countries have already granted their creators the recognition of these neighbouring rights. Of course-and I will have something to say about exceptions-every time a government introduces a piece of legislation granting rights or recognizing new rights for a class of workers, it has to be understood that there are reactions from people from which some privileges are removed.
I totally agree with my colleague from Québec that there should be no exception to this rule. I think that artists, through the sacrifice they made of the rights they should have recovered over the last years, have already done more than their fair share for economic development.
My colleague from Québec mentioned broadcasters, universities, colleges, schools, municipalities, people writing to complain that now they will have to pay. Of course they will have to pay; they did not pay for 50 years, so it is only normal that they pay now.
I would like to ask the hon. member the following question: Why should the government not apply in this case the sacrosanct principle this government has been advocating for a number of years, the user pay principle? All of a sudden, we find that the
government, which pays lip service to this fine principle, is introducing all kinds of exceptions. Earlier today, we passed Bill C-20 on the privatization of air navigation control services. We saw the government go against its own user pay principle when it said that National Defence should not pay for using these services. Now it is coming up with a series of exceptions.
As soon as we open up exceptions, we can add indefinitely to the list. That is why I ask: Why does the government not apply the user pay principle in this case?