Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges for her very relevant question. First of all, I have to say that artists are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, contrary to popular belief. We see them on TV, all sparkly and glamorous, but in real life, it is not the same.
In Canada and Quebec, the average artist's income is between $20,000 and $25,000 per year. Some of them make a lot more. There are some Céline Dions in the world, but the fact remains that most artists really do not make a lot of money.
The Canadian Private Copying Collective has collected $180 million in royalties since 1998. These millions of dollars are redistributed as fairly as possible to the artists of Canada and Quebec. That money is the difference between living below or above the poverty line, allows artists to get a few thousand dollars more in a year or to receive a cheque from time to time to make ends meet. These royalties are worth a lot to the artists and taking them away would be devastating.
We have to understand that, since people use four-track cassettes less and less, royalties are decreasing dramatically and constantly, while artists need more and more help because their CDs are not selling well—because there are too many copies.