Mr. Speaker, it is with much pride that, as the official opposition critic for heritage and cultural industries, I stand to take part in this debate.
This is an occasion of great pride and a great step forward for the artists, the creators, those who nurture our imagination and our culture; it is a great step forward because, after third reading, this bill will be sent to the other place and will ultimately receive royal assent.
I listened with great pleasure the comments made by the Canadian heritage minister, because she pointed out that the tremendous work that has been done all along in the committee, which received so many reports and studies-over 170 briefs-and heard about 67 witnesses, work that was done with great care and determination to improve a bill that will serve the artists, the cultural industries and the users.
Very briefly, I think the colleagues in the heritage committee, both the government and the official opposition colleagues, quickly understood that we had the will and determination to work together to advance the best things possible for this bill.
In that regard, I must say that, as parliamentarians, we are of course members of Parliament elected to legislate; we are here to make laws. In the process of studying the copyright legislation, we all felt-and I think I speak for my colleagues-that we were playing our role as parliamentarians, that is making sure the bill put forward gets improved every step along the way in keeping with its ultimate goal, which in this case was to serve, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage said, the interests of the artists, of the creators and of the cultural industries.
In that sense, I think we reached our objective. I urge all my colleagues in the House to support the bill on third reading because these objectives have been reached.
I would like to remind the House simply but clearly that this bill comes after an act that was passed in 1924 and was first amended in 1988. Now, in 1997, we have a third set of amendments, the so-called phase II.
Most artists and creators in visual or performing arts get an income from artistic activity that averages between $7,000 and $13,000 a year, depending on the type of activity. It is easy to understand that, for these people, it has been quite a long wait, from 1924 to 1988, before the society they live in and the Parliament of all elected representatives got around to listen to them.
This is a crucial stage, because in 1988, artists and creators were granted greater moral and economic rights. In 1988, an extremely pivotal development took place: collective societies were recognized. Authors and creators can now be represented by an organization that tries to better manage the royalties and levies authors, creators, and artists are entitled to, if they are to earn a living from their artistic activity.
Bill C-32 introduces majors elements, including the neighbouring rights concept. The heritage minister just mentioned it a
moment ago. On behalf of our performers and the recording industry, we must at last join the 50 countries or so that have recognized neighbouring rights and signed the Rome Convention. This last phase of Bill C-32 will allow our performers to have their rights recognized in more than 50 countries. This is a major step forward.
In this bill, there is another recognition, another important gain in the area of private copying. Everyone recognized during the hearings, and we spoke together about this, that a lot of illegal copying, a lot of bootlegging of songs and music is done without the creators and singers necessarily getting their fair share.
With the private copying system, royalties will be paid directly to the manufacturer who, in turn, will redistribute them among creators, authors, composers and singers who, up until now, were deprived of their share because of this universally recognized practice that is the copying of cassettes.
This bill also has an interesting feature that gives us hope: it will be reviewed in five years.
Everybody knows that this bill is not perfect. We worked on it, we improved it, but everybody admits that, in certain respects, it is already out of date. One reason for this is that it does not refer to modern technologies, to all those communication means which are being developed and on which artists still have no control in defending their rights.
I ask the government to see to it that phase III can get under way as soon as possible and to request that the heritage committee complete its work before the bill is reviewed in five years, so we are well informed when the time comes.
I wish to recall that the question of copyright has been on the official opposition's agenda since we arrived in this House. My colleague, the heritage minister, will recall that, at the beginning of this 35th Parliament, my colleague for Rimouski-Témiscouata, who spoke before me, asked her a question about this. She asked the minister to table a copyright bill as soon as possible. I must say that, in this regard, the official opposition's mandate has been fulfilled.
I also remind the House that, in the interests of the artists, the official opposition asked the government to give consideration as quickly as possible to the new technologies and the new circumstances on the global market.
In fact, between 1988 and 1990, some changes were made to the act as a result of NAFTA and other international agreements. Not long ago, the heritage committee was asked to review our cultural policy in relation to those international agreements.
The official opposition did its job and managed to convince the government to act in the best interests of artists, who had been waiting for these changes for a long time. They are still waiting for some changes reflecting the new international market conditions and the new technologies.
Today is an important day. I ask all my colleagues to vote for the bill at third reading.
In concluding, I would like to thank first, my colleagues on the heritage committee for their co-operation and their support. I also thank the staff and the advisers who followed the committee during its proceedings to help its members understand all the issues and do a good job in presenting to this House an improved bill meeting the ultimate objectives of the authors.
Finally, I want to express my appreciation for all the groups who submitted briefs or came before us to express their opinion and explain the issues as clearly as possible to help us do a good job.
I want to express my sincere thanks to all those people and I hope that the bill will be given royal assent before the elections are called.