Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Canadian Heritage released a first report on the new television and cable fund for the production of Canadian programs.
This government initiative resulted in the production of over 2,200 hours of Canadian programs in the past year. In 1996-97, over 376 projects received financial support from this fund, for a total investment in excess of $624 million.
While all regions of the country benefited from the fund, audio-visual production more than doubled in the Toronto and Montreal areas.
Audio-visual production creates over 30,000 direct jobs and 72,000 indirect jobs in Canada. Our government is very proud to have been the instigator of a project which, while creating jobs, also supports and helps—