Mr. Speaker, I am here for the adjournment debate tonight because I asked a question in the House and did not receive a satisfactory answer. Some might say that I will not receive a satisfactory answer tonight, but I will give it one more try.
On February 12, I asked a question about the elimination of two programs that subsidized tours: PromArt and Trade Routes. The elimination of these programs really hurt artists who tour abroad. As I told the minister on February 12, if not for help from an Italian producer, La La La Human Steps, a dance company, would not have been able to go to Italy. It makes no sense that artists now have to ask foreign producers to cover their travel and shipping costs. Traditionally, in industrialized nations, artists, cultural organizations, dance and theatre companies offer their services to foreign producers, who pay their fee, and the home country covers travel and shipping costs for the artists, their sets and their costumes. That is how it has always been done. That is how every other industrialized country still does it.
So, in addition to the performers' fees for La La La Human Steps—which, as we know, is a very modern dance company—a foreign producer had to pay for their transportation. That is a huge blow to Canada's reputation and that of its artists. As we can see, the Conservative Government of Canada no longer wants to support its artists so they may travel abroad.
Just this morning, in today's paper, Alain Dancyger, executive director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, criticized the situation. Indeed, because of the Conservatives' incompetence and their refusal to subsidize a dance company like Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the company is now facing a shortfall of $150,000. A dance company involves a lot of people and a lot of cargo, including sets and costumes. They needed $250,000 right off the bat every year in order to tour abroad. That is what the Canadian government had been giving them in subsidies through a program called PromArt, which had a budget of several million dollars. Thus, the executive director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Alain Dancyger, strongly criticized the situation this morning. He said he was very embarrassed by the fact that he had to seek out funding from a country like Egypt. To depend on donations from Egyptian companies, because our own country—a G8 country—cannot support us, as he said, is unacceptable.
One must wonder what it will take for the Conservative government to listen to reason and restore the programs that have been eliminated. Of course, every time I ask a question of this nature, the government always plays me the same old broken record. It probably already has it queued up. It will say, “Our government has made record investments in culture”, which is not exactly completely accurate. It will add, “The Bloc Québécois voted against it.” I would remind the House that the Bloc Québécois voted for this government's budget on May 10, 2006, and on March 27, 2007. I hope it will have some other arguments this time.