Madam Speaker, the member for Elmwood—Transcona spoke about us supporting this motion at committee.
As a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, along with my colleague, the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, who is the official critic for the official opposition on the Canadian Heritage file, we were most interested in having the motion brought forward to the Chamber where we could have an opportunity to debate, discuss and, hopefully, highlight for the government the need for copyright legislation to ensure that we modernize it and that it is reflective of the needs of the organizations, the stakeholders, the advocates and, most important, the artists.
We are in no way, shape or form advocating our responsibility away from the artists. We support the artists and they must get the resources, the skills and tools they need to succeed. Unfortunately, the debate both by the parliamentarians bringing forward the motion and some of the other members does nothing to reward the artists for their creativity, their innovation, their hard work and their efforts.
We on this side of the House are committed to working with the artists. As a long-standing member of the Canadian heritage committee, I and my colleague, the official critic, have worked diligently and earnestly with all the stakeholders, organizations, advocates and artists to ensure we have legislation that is modernized and reflects the needs of artists and also provides protection for the consumers.