House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was cultural.

Last in Parliament April 1997, as Liberal MP for Laval West (Québec)

Won his last election, in 1993, with 46% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Copyright November 6th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, we have to find a good balance between the rights of creators-we are establishing new ones-and the rights of users. This is the real issue. This is where we have to find a balance, and the hon. member will see how we do it when the bill is tabled.

Copyright November 6th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, it is perfectly normal to have several ministers involved. There is of course the Minister of Justice, since the bill must be drafted by his department. There is also the Minister of Industry, since he is responsible for the Copyright Act. And, finally, there is the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who is responsible for proposing amendments to the act.

The three ministers work together, make decisions together, and will get results together. As for the duration of the process, I publicly stated on several occasions that we are going as fast as we can, that the issue is complex, and that the bill will be tabled in the House as soon as it is ready.

Excise Tax Act November 2nd, 1995

moved that Bill C-103, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Income Tax Act be read the third time and passed.

Madam Speaker, I am delighted to introduce for third reading Bill C-103, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Income Tax Act, a measure in support of Canada's magazine industry.

Canadian periodicals are a vital element of our cultural expression. They provide news and information, critical analysis, informed discourse and lively dialogue, all of which contribute to our sense of identity as Canadians.

In cultural terms, the Canadian magazine industry is a flourishing sector with over 1,300 titles available from over 1,000 publishers. The editorial pages of Canadian magazines contain ideas and information that are the page equivalent of 2,500 books per year.

Magazines reach specialized audiences not accessible to the other media, such as newspapers and television. They target new audiences and give them an opportunity to speak, thus creating a bond between readers who share similar ideas. Clearly, they offer very significant cultural advantages to a society as scattered and disparate as our own.

Canadian magazines also provide writers and artists with a means of expression. About 92 per cent of the editorial content of Canadian periodicals is produced by Canadian writers employed by these periodicals or working for them on a freelance basis. Canadians are also responsible for over 92 per cent of illustrations and photographs.

Canadians have access to a wide array of Canadian periodicals, from current affairs magazines like L'Actualité and Maclean's , to special interest publications in areas such as the arts, science and leisure, to general interest magazines aimed at a wide audience.

Some of these publications are academic in nature while others are low circulation magazines whose openness to experimentation in the arts and literature leads to cultural renewal.

The first Canadian periodicals were created in Nova Scotia at the end of the 18th century by immigrants from New England. The history of periodicals in Canada follows that of many writers, artists and merchants. It has led to the conception of innovative ideas, to the creation of original visual images, and to the emergence of new forms of cultural expression.

More importantly, the history of periodicals in Canada is also a political saga in which individual interests have survived in an environment dominated by foreign interests.

For the government, the challenge has always been to strike a balance between preserving Canada's cultural autonomy and allowing the free flow of ideas.

The factors that define the environment in which Canadian publishers compete for Canadian readers include: the impact of foreign magazines on the market; the relatively small size of the Canadian population; the difficulties and cost of distribution over our huge territory; the openness of Canadians to foreign cultural products; the effects of the cover prices of imported magazines on the Canadian price structure; news stand competition from foreign magazines; and the impact of overflow advertising on the potential advertising market in Canada.

In addition, today's tough financial and fiscal environment takes its toll. In 1992 for example, more than half of Canadian magazines had no operating profits. The average operating profit for the industry as a whole was only 2.36 per cent. The success of the Canadian magazine industry can be better described as cultural rather than financial. Canadian publishing ventures of all types have been sustained by the creativity of writers and publishers and the interest of readers.

Magazines must build and maintain their readership over the long term. Also essential to their survival are advertisers. Canadian magazines depend on advertising for 65 per cent of their revenue.

The government's policy concerning the Canadian magazine industry is to encourage Canadian businesses to advertise in Canadian periodicals and in periodicals whose content is original rather than recycled, and to help publishers reach their market.

Since 1965, two measures have helped inject advertising revenues into the Canadian magazine industry. These two measures are customs tariff 9958, which prohibits the importing of split run periodicals, and section 19 of the Income Tax Act, which permits the deduction of the costs of advertising directed at the Canadian market, provided this advertising is placed in Canadian editions of Canadian owned or controlled periodicals.

In April 1993, the arrival of Sports Illustrated Canada in our newsstands marked the beginning of a new way of dealing with the Canadian market for the American magazine industry. Sports Illustrated Canada was able to sidestep tariff code 9958 by electronically transmitting the main editorial content from the United States to a printer in Canada instead of physically importing the split run edition into Canada. Domestic ads were substituted for foreign ads and some original content was added to the existing editorial content. Thus, Sports Illustrated Canada demonstrated that the tariff code was no longer completely effective in dealing with split runs.

This new development underscored the need to update the legislative measures in place to support this vital sector of our cultural industry. It has been asserted that Investment Canada Act guidelines announced in July 1993 effectively foreclosed the possibility of any further split runs in the Canadian market. These guidelines however, can only apply to businesses in Canada. As we have seen with Sports Illustrated Canada, the publisher does not need a place of business in Canada in order to publish split runs in our country. Hence, Bill C-103.

First, an amendment to the Excise Tax Act will impose an excise tax on split run editions of periodicals attributed in Canada.

Second, an amendment to section 19 of the Income Tax Act will add an anti-avoidance rule relating to the deductibility of advertising. This will ensure that newspapers and periodicals that purport to be Canadian are in fact Canadian owned and controlled.

These are measures that will level the playing field for the Canadian magazine industry. That is fair. It is our responsibility to ensure that the Canadian magazine industry can compete for ad dollars.

The task force on the Canadian magazine industry was set up because the Sports Illustrated Canada case had demonstrated that the existing legislation could be circumvented. And I would like to clarify an important point here.

The problem does not rest with the general idea of publishing a sports magazine in Canada. It has to do with advertising revenues. The fact that a split run edition of Sports Illustrated Canada was sold in our newsstands shows that split run editions can enter the Canadian advertising market in spite of the existing legislation.

The task force set about its task in April 1993. Its mandate was to find sound and practical ways to ensure that the federal policy of assistance to the Canadian magazine industry would remain effective.

Task force members had an extensive knowledge of and experience in the Canadian magazine industry. There were members from every region of the country, including advisors working for the advertising industry or the Consumers' Association of Canada, representatives of the Canadian magazine industry and international trade experts.

This group of highly competent individuals carried out their task superbly. Not only did they provide us with an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of the Canadian magazine industry, but they also demonstrated the need to update existing legislative instruments governing the Canadian magazine industry.

We have relied on the advice of the task force because it examined closely all possible options. For example, the task force concluded that split runs could lead to a possible loss of 40 per cent of the industry's advertising revenue. That is $200 million annually.

Fiscal concerns ruled out establishing an industrial support program of such magnitude. The proposed tax is the most reasonable and practical structural measure. At 80 per cent, the tax can effectively achieve its objective of encouraging original content.

The task force concluded that the adoption of an excise tax measure that encourages ad revenues to flow to periodicals containing original editorial content in magazines would be the best way to assist Canada's magazine industry in a manner consistent with our trade obligations. By promoting original content, the tax will also ensure that all publishers are competing on a more even footing for Canadian advertising revenue.

A number of questions and concerns have been raised during the debate on Bill C-103. I would like to take this opportunity to address some of them.

It has been suggested that Canadian magazine publishers should take advantage of the opportunities provided by the free trade agreement and sell into the United States. American popular culture is part of the every day life of Canadians and so the editorial content of American magazines is generally of interest to Canadians. The reverse is not true. Canadian popular culture and Canadian issues are not part of the every day life of Americans.

To succeed in the United States, Canadian magazines would have to change their editorial content to such an extent they would no longer be Canadian magazines.

The question has been raised whether the proposed excise tax is a valid use of the federal taxation power. Let me assure the House that Bill C-103 is a valid exercise of the federal taxation power. The measure is of general application, since it will apply to any split run

edition distributed in Canada. Tax measures are not always solely for the purpose of raising revenue. Tax measures may also be used for other economic and social objectives.

Examples are the tax treatments of RRSP contributions and the child tax benefits.

Finally, to those who criticize such a tax because of its discriminatory nature, I say that this tax measure would apply to any split run edition, whether produced by a Canadian publisher or a foreign one.

With Bill C-103, the government's objective is not to limit access to foreign magazines, but to preserve a market in which Canadian publications can do well in our country and continue to be sold alongside foreign magazines.

The federal policy of supporting the Canadian magazine industry has been in place for a long time and remains unchanged. In fact, Bill C-103 reinforces that policy by adapting it to the new reality. This legislation will enable the industry to meet the challenges created by technological changes, such as those which have resulted in the split run edition phenomenon in Canada.

An open and stable structure for transborder exchanges is one of the greatest assets for our country. In a huge and diversified world market, with globalization increasingly prevalent, our culture allows us to be different from the other countries. As a government, the challenge is, as always, to maintain efficient policies and policy instruments that will promote cultural development. We must also seek to achieve a balance between the sometimes competing interests of our foreign trade, on the one hand, and the preservation of our cultural identity, on the other.

Bill C-103 meets those important objectives. Canadians value who they are as a people and as a country. They want and deserve access to cultural products that mirror the Canadian experience and outlook, to give Canadians what they want and deserve, means ensuring that our cultural industries remain healthy.

It is not enough to say, for example, that the circulation of the top Canadian magazines has increased while the circulation of the top U.S. magazines in Canada has decreased. The reality is that Canada's top magazines are up against the combined force of the much larger number of American magazines in circulation.

In conclusion, the 1970s and the 1980s saw an unprecedented explosion of cultural activity which produced a broad range of Canadian artistic products. During this time Canadians continued to define themselves and their values in a uniquely Canadian way.

The federal government has taken several measures to increase the share of the internal market held by Canadian cultural products, and to improve the ability of Canadian artists and cultural industries to create and market their products in our country. In the nineties, the Canadian cultural policy expanded, so as to include many new components. This complexity is the result of market globalization, as well as the extraordinary development of our artistic and cultural activities.

The main objective of our cultural policy still is to make sure that Canadians have access to Canadian products in order for them to share common values and symbols and continue to develop a cultural identity fitting their image.

Bill C-103 is an extension of our cultural policy. Even if the challenges are many, our track record shows that we can not only meet them but do an excellent job of it.

I will conclude with a quote from the report of the task force on the Canadian magazine industry. "Magazines help foster in Canadians a sense of ourselves. They enable us to see ourselves as no others see us. They also enable us to view the rest of the world from a Canadian standpoint. They are the thread which binds together the fibres of our nation".

I urge my colleagues to support Bill C-103 at third reading.

The Crtc October 17th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, I would like our colleague to respond to questions I have often put to my friends in both the Bloc and the Parti Quebecois.

As a country separated from Canada, how is Quebec going to block the American programs that spill over its borders via satellite? They will need the mechanism that we already have-the CRTC and the Broadcasting Act.

They should be delighted to have such a mechanism and vote no.

The Crtc October 17th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, the CRTC has received a number of applications for licences. Next comes the perfectly natural process whereby they are heard, everyone's comments are heard, those in favour and those opposed-this is the point of the process.

The government will not intervene in the debate, because the law prevents it. We will, however, see at the end of the process whether the CRTC's decision is wise and, if it is not, interested parties will certainly be appealing to the government. At that point, we can decide. Let us allow the process to take its course, and then we will have some answers.

The Crtc October 17th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question would be valid if it were based on fact, which it is not. The federal government never violated the act and never instructed the CRTC to contravene the act, on the contrary.

We wanted to ensure there was no penetration of Canada's airwaves via American satellites. We acted for the purpose of protecting Canadian content.

The Crtc October 17th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, obviously, in Canada the interests involved can apply for whatever they want, but it is up to the CRTC to decide. It makes its decisions on the basis of the legislation, the Broadcasting Act to which I referred earlier.

When the CRTC has made a decision with respect to a licence, that decision can be appealed to cabinet. That is how the legislation works, and its purpose is to protect Canadian content.

The Crtc October 17th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, what is important is what it says in the act, and I am referring to the Broadcasting Act which established the CRTC. I am very pleased that the CRTC will consider representations on the subject raised by the hon. member. That is how the legislation works, and it is there to protect Canadian content on our airwaves.

Canada Council September 29th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, I will not use the argument that this is an organization operating completely at arm's length from the minister. What I want to say, however, is that there are no signs indicating that the Canada Council is discriminating against francophones. Far from it, the Canada Council is one of the strongest supporters of francophones across Canada and in Quebec in particular.

Canada Council September 29th, 1995

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Council has undertaken an in-depth review of its structures and business plan, the main objective of which is to increase the council's efficiency and effectiveness, not to hit one group or another with punitive action. I think it can be said that the Canada Council has been and will continue to be a driving force for the development of the French culture in Canada.