Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today, even though the debate is coming to an end.
As industry critic, I have attended meetings of both the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage over the past few years. I realized there was significant concern that the government, Liberal at the time, now Conservative, might dismiss rules about foreign ownership in telecommunications, and in all cultural industries.
I think that the motion before us today is a heartfelt appeal from Parliament and from people who feel that danger is on our doorstep. The threat is related to the report on telecommunications released a month or two ago that suggested we do away with all of the rules governing foreign ownership controls in telecommunications. This would be very dangerous for Canada's cultural industry.
We must understand—and this is the part of the motion that I find most interesting—that if we want to throw out foreign ownership rules, we can only apply these arguments to physical aspects of the business. Telecommunications companies transmit and broadcast signals. In this sector, we cannot differentiate between the people who deal with medium and those who deal with the message. There is no difference between the medium and the message.
The best examples of this are American companies, which produce a lot of cable television and radio. For these companies, Quebec and Canada are small markets onto which they can dump their products at minimal cost. Our own companies cannot compete.
We must therefore make sure that we do not adopt the recommendations on abolishing the rules governing foreign ownership in the telecommunications sector. The motion before us is a step in this direction. This pleases me and seems appropriate, especially since the motion begins with a reminder that Canada ratified the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. If that has any meaning, if Canada ratified a convention in order to put forward logical policies, then this motion must be passed today.
Throughout Quebec and Canada, people who do not share the government's views are making themselves heard. They realize that this is a minority government and that its positions on some issues do not enjoy a broad consensus or even majority support. The Kyoto protocol is one example, and today we have another example. The result of this evening's vote will be one of the decisions that people will have to answer for during the next election.
If the government decides to vote against a motion such as this one, if it decides to lift the rules on foreign ownership of telecommunications companies, if it ensures that our cultural industry is likened to any other sector where shoes or other products are sold, without considering the uniqueness of culture, it will have made a serious error.
I would like to talk more specifically about film, the subject raised earlier. A number of questions were raised regarding Quebec cinema. Why is cinema flourishing in Quebec? Why have we managed to develop a star system? Why do our films appear in the theatres and compete with American films? Why do our films attract as many if not more people than American films? It is because, in Quebec, we have developed a way to help the industry. We have not abandoned it. We did not consider it competition or just like any other sector. We did not say that people had to be left to produce films and the public would go to see Quebec films if they liked them, but if the public preferred English Canadian or American films they would go to see those. Instead, we created a structure and a means of support that took the situation and Quebec culture into account. In the end, it paid off.
In terms of Canada and the other provinces, they do speak the same language as the United States, but if the restrictions were lifted, things would be even worse. I think no more films would be produced in English Canada if a total invasion of this industrial sector were permitted.
When we have a motion like this one telling us that we have to protect current requirements for Canadian cultural content, maintain current restrictions on foreign ownership in culture, and continue to fund radio and television in both official languages, it is clear that these are essential elements of a cultural policy.
Obviously, Quebec has some huge advantages here and has taken on the responsibility of protecting Quebeckers, the nation of Quebec, in North America and around the world. But as long as Quebec is part of Canada, we must ensure that Canada's policies recognize this culture.
We cannot go through two, five or ten years of deregulation, then realize what a devastating effect it has had on our production and try to go back and reinstitute adequate regulations.
Here is the best example I can give: for a very long time, when rules concerning French-language music content were proposed, there was a considerable uproar in Quebec. However, it was soon realized that, when music gets airtime and people hear it, they buy records. That also encourages people to make records, which then produces results for Quebec. The Cowboys Fringants, a band with roots in Quebec culture, received considerable support, which has led to results in terms of popularity and records sales. They would not be as popular without this obligation to include francophone content in music.
If it had been decided to promote only the listeners' favourite music, before gradually conducting surveys on the impact of what is happening outside of Quebec or Canada, we would have seen an anglicization of the air waves.
We see this in the danger presented by satellite radio. Regulation is inadequate in this sector and we can foresee the difficulty facing the market at the end of the day.
Therefore, the Bloc Québécois supports this motion. It seems to us, however, that Quebec will be much better equipped to defend Quebec culture.
The regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications is deemed essential, and it is believed that the most serious harm to Canadian content was caused by the Liberals when they approved satellite radio. It is quite paradoxical that the Liberal party is tabling today a motion that forces the defence and protection of cultural content given that, when in power, the Liberals had adopted measures having the opposite effect. However, if their move to the other side of the House has given them the opportunity to get back in touch with the people and to realize that such actions are necessary, such is the effect of democracy, which can lead to interesting results.
I hope that this evening, in this House, a vast majority will vote in favour of this motion. I hope that it will be reflected in the government's actions. Otherwise, this will be yet another instance where the people give the government a clear message that it has failed to respect the will of the majority represented here by the opposition parties.