Mr. Speaker, we have worked very hard to help the member through the very significant investments we are making. Apparently the member and her colleagues have no interest in reading the budget or in looking into the very significant investments we are making in the arts. The member specifically referenced travel abroad.
Her constituents and the constituents of the Bloc in Quebec should know that the Bloc has voted against budget 2009. Budget 2009, Canada's economic action plan, contains $276 million in new money, but of course that is not all of the money for the arts. The $276 million is new money. The member is unaware that there is $276 million in new money. There is $540 million in total, of which $276 million is new. It will go to help ridings from coast to coast and it will support the arts from coast to coast.
The member referenced international travel. The member should know, and in fact artists know, that we have increased the funding to the Canada Council for the Arts up to $181 million. That is a 17% increase. That was a fund of just $100 million only a few short years ago. It is now $181 million, thanks to the leadership of our Prime Minister, our finance minister and our great new young Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.
Everywhere he goes, artists from coast to coast, after meeting the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, are very impressed with his leadership and his direction. People are very excited about where he is taking this file and about the progressive nature of the way we are taking this file.
Canadian culture is a world-leading export for Canada, but it is also something we are proud to promote right here in Canada. That is why we have invested $100 million for summer festivals. Those summer festivals will occur from coast to coast in this great country, from north to south and from east to west, and we will be behind those festivals. We are also behind so many things that the artists are doing.
I want to go back to the Canada Council for the Arts for one moment. The investment we have made there has increased to $181 million, $13 million of which they are spending on international travel, but the balance remaining, $168 million, is going to artists right here. They are investing it right here, in artists and in arts and culture right here. That is artists helping artists, and our government is standing behind the Canada Council. We are backing them up.
The Bloc is voting against the Canada Council, and I would like to repeat that statement for the people in Quebec, because the Bloc does not run anywhere else. The Bloc has voted against increases in funding for the Canada Council for the Arts. The Bloc Québécois has voted against increases in arts and culture, and it campaigns as a party that supports arts and culture. Well, the Bloc cannot support arts and culture in Quebec and come to Ottawa and vote against funding increases for the Canada Council and so many other things, such as summer festivals. The member should apologize to the arts and culture community in Quebec for consistently voting against its interests.