Mr. Speaker, for the adjournment debate this evening, I will return to a question I asked the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages here, in this House, on February 2.
I told him that he got a lot of people's hopes up when he came to Quebec in January to meet members of the cultural community. They said that he was a good listener. On February 2, the very day of my question, Le Devoir reported that the minister pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, because he had not restored the $5 million he cut, without reason, for foreign tours by artists.
I asked the minister to admit that he was trying to make something new out of something old because most of the money he was announcing—and that he continues to announce—will go to extending existing programs.
I want to talk about the Trade Routes program because it has to do with the second part of my question. I asked him to restore the program that made it possible for artists—in the performing arts and also more literary arts, such as writers—to present their cultural works abroad.
Trade Routes is a comprehensive trade development program specifically designed for Canada's arts and cultural sector. The program helps profit and not-for-profit organizations in the arts and cultural sector prepare to export and sell their products and services in international markets. In particular, the program offers access to market research, trade experts in Canada and abroad, and financial support.
Trade Routes helps profit and not-for-profit organizations in the arts and cultural sector, in the areas of crafts, design, film and television, heritage, new media, performing arts, publishing, sound recording and visual arts.
The program usually has a budget of nearly $8 million. Of that, close to $3 million—$2.7 million or $2.8 million, to be precise—goes directly to artists, theatre and dance companies, and the other $5 million goes to cultural attachés. That is why, during yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, I had a question for Alain Paré, president of the International Exchange for the Performing Arts (CINARS), who is keenly aware of the program.
He said that Heritage Canada's trade commissioners, who suck up $5 million of PromArt's $8 million allocation, were seen as duplicating the work of cultural attachés already working in embassies, people we could easily do without. However, we still have to figure out how to get that $3 million back. Artists really need that money, as well as the PromArt money, to perform and exhibit abroad.
I would truly like to know if the minister intends to find a solution so that Quebec's arts and culture sector will not be stifled.