Mr. Speaker, I want to say just how sad it is for me today to rise and speak to this motion. When my colleague from Ahuntsic brought it before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, the government members were fiercely opposed. That is what is so sad. Once again the government members, that is to say the Conservatives, want to control all that is said, muzzle the opposition parties, dictate what can be said and lead people to believe that there is only one way of thinking here in the House.
We had a good reason for deciding to introduce this motion before the House on this very day. In other areas as well, the government members want to preach only one way of thinking and push their own standpoints while trying to muzzle the opposition.
We learned recently that the Conservatives, with the Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment leading the way, have decided that no opposition members will go to Bali. Even though the opposition is in the majority in this House, they have decided to leave it behind, back here in Ottawa. We think that, both in the case of the motion being debated now and with respect to climate change, parliamentarians should be involved in developing all the policies put forward by the government.
When it comes to the environment, the Conservative government has simply proven itself incapable of proposing and implementing a plan for reducing greenhouse gases with absolute targets that would enable Canada to meet the objectives of the Kyoto protocol. However—need we remind the House—parliamentarians, especially the members of the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development, have suggested several ways of doing that. The minority government has just brushed these suggestions aside.
This is not the only issue where the government has decided to proceed unilaterally. I am thinking, for example, of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, where the government did not like what was being said very much and just decided to close it down. I am thinking as well of the elimination of the court challenges program. In the government’s view, the laws it promulgates should not be questioned because they are sacrosanct. That is not how things should be in a democratic system, as the witnesses who came before the Standing Committee on Official Languages told us. It was the same with the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Seeing my colleague from Laval reminds me of all of the changes made to the criteria for the women's program. The government is making it impossible for those who protect women's rights to do their jobs well. During a recent statement, my colleague from Laval had every reason to ask what good it does having 11 members from Quebec in government. My colleagues can find the clear answer in Hansard: it does no good at all.
A minority government cannot make all of its decisions unilaterally and force the opposition to keep quiet. That is why my colleague from Ahuntsic decided to table the following motion in the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage:
That...any new directive to the CRTC from the Governor-in-Council amending the interpretation of the Broadcasting Policy for Canada or the Canadian Telecommunications Policy be first put before the House through the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for its consideration.
All we want is transparency. It is not complicated to submit new directives that would amend the interpretation of Canadian policy. It seems simple enough to me, but apparently it is not so simple for the member from Abbotsford.
I would like to read one of the objections to this motion that he raised at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage:
The problem is, virtually every decision or directive that the minister would make could be construed as affecting the interpretation of broadcast policy in Canada. So we haven't confined the scope of this in any way. In fact, this motion is so broad it would compel the minister to refer to this committee, or to the House, virtually every directive that he ever issues, whether it's to the CRTC, the CBC or whatever other crown corporation there may be.
Do members really think that, when public servants or the people in the minister's office draft a new policy directive or issue a new order, they do not realize—when drafting it—that it will substantially change the established order of things? Do they seriously think that, when the Minister of Industry announced on December 11, 2006, that telephone companies could set their own rates in areas where at least three phone companies were competing, he was not aware that he would be changing the role of the CRTC? It makes no sense. When a new guideline is issued, the author knows whether it will substantially change the way regulations are to be interpreted.
I will give just a few examples. Do members think that my colleagues from Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia and Abitibi—Témiscamingue did not feel the effect of this order in their communities? People awoke on the morning after with a new set of rules that would totally change telephone communications in their region. The order contains no provision for the relative size of the various telecommunications companies. It provides simply that, when three companies are competing, the new rules provide that market forces prevail. The people in these regions of Quebec affected by the new order were hard hit by it. There was no doubt in their mind that new guidelines had been implemented.
In any case, in a press release dated June 13, 2006, the minister set out the new line that would be followed. He said, “Tabling this document signals the government's intention to direct the CRTC to rely on market forces—” Because of this, because of the precedent created, Quebec's entire cultural community is quite justifiably upset.
If we want the players in the cultural community—those working on cultural content, those who broadcast it and those who promote it—to have the means to express our identity culturally, we must be sure that the framework established for their protection is respected.
Thus, on the very evening of the ADISQ gala, these organizations were quite clear in reminding the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages of her duties.
I would like to share what some people from the cultural communities had to say—because they are the ones we should be listening to—simply to remind hon. members of the importance of regulation in culture. In fact, we must ensure that culture remains a vehicle for our identity and that we have strong cultural enterprises and stakeholders here who can deliver this message and explain who we are as a nation.
Paul Dupont-Hébert, ADISQ president, said:
This reorientation of CRTC priorities goes against the Act, the CRTC’s mission, and the fragile reality of our cultural industries. The Act clearly obligates the CRTC to give primary consideration to the broadcasting system’s social and cultural contribution to Canada’s cultural identity. It does not ask the CRTC to become an agent of deregulation.
To that I would like to add the promotion of Quebec's cultural identity. Since this House had the pleasure of adopting a motion recognizing the nation of Quebec, it is clear that all of Canada's democratic institutions have recognized Quebec's new status.
Vincent Leduc, chairman of the Board of APFTQ, said:
Culture is not a commodity like any other. There is no such thing as a fair market for cultural works in an economy like Quebec’s or Canada’s. Without strongly applied cultural policies, our artists and our independent production companies are bound to be steamrollered by the foreign competition.
That is another reason why there needs to be strong regulation in our companies, so as not to lose sight of who we are and where we come from.
Raymond Legault, president of UDA, said:
In Canada, cultural policies form a whole that is altogether necessary to developing the talent of our artists. By removing one stone you threaten the entire structure. When the CRTC no longer strongly supports the policies under its responsibility, it sends a message that all of our cultural support framework can be called into question.
This is what we must do today: we must ensure that all of the mechanisms for supporting culture will not be jeopardized. That is why, today, we are calling on the government, which did not want to offer assurances in committee.
Everyone who earns a living from culture must make that culture a message, a treasure chest or collection of all the values and tools we can use to promote what we are, not only within our borders, but also outside them.
To conclude on this point, I would simply point out a factor that the coalition considers to be paradoxical.
As I said, I find it paradoxical and disappointing that Canada, which was in the forefront of the cultural diversity movement and was the first country to ratify the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, would be in this position today, when the very purpose of that convention is to provide legal protection for the right of states to make their own cultural policies. Today the CRTC—a central regulating body—is abandoning its duties with respect to the adoption and implementation of those policies.
This is indeed quite curious. Unless, perhaps, the government is telling us that the ratification of a convention like the one on diversity of cultural expressions means nothing, that it is just words, and Canada’s signature is worth nothing. In fact, we have seen this with the Kyoto protocol. The government had put its signature on the document and the current government decided to disregard that signature. They are not going to stop at one withdrawal, and that is distressing.
In closing, I would like reply to a few of the comments by the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, who spoke in the House a little earlier and was asking how Quebec’s independence would strengthen the cultural identity of the nation to which I belong. Well, it is fairly simple. In the international bodies, when you have the right to speak, when you have a seat and you can vote, then you have a direct influence on what happens.
At UNESCO, if Quebec could rise and vote on its own, that would simply mean that the voice of Quebeckers would be heard in that international institution. That would allow Quebec to lay out its views, its objectives and its priorities clearly, in the case now before us, on the question of culture.
If Canada, which would probably be sitting beside Quebec, were of the same view, that would mean two voices instead of one, and it would make the common message stronger. On the other hand, if Canada were not of the same opinion as Quebec, then the two entities, the two countries, could express their views freely and separately, as is not the case at present. This majority francophone culture in the Americas would then have its own voice and the resources to define itself as such and to state clearly to the world that it intends to protect its culture.
Quebec has always been in the forefront when it comes to promoting the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Pierre Curzi used every forum and was an ardent promoter of that convention. It might be time for the federal government to think about giving back to Quebec all the powers— in fact, giving all those powers to Quebec, because it never gave them in the first place—with respect to telecommunications and broadcasting, precisely because, under the Constitution, culture is a matter within the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces.
It is time for Quebec to be able to establish a counterpart of the CRTC, a Quebec telecommunications and broadcasting commission. This is not a brand new idea. I am thinking of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, who was calling for it in 1929.
With that, I thank all hon. members for participating in this very important debate.