James Moore

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 17th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, there are no programs offered by the Department of Canadian Heritage which fit the requirements listed above.

The Canada Council for the Arts offers financial assistance for international touring through its Dance Touring Grants–International (Pilot Program). Like all dance organizations, Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montréal can receive up to $50,000, which is the established maximum for the program.

[Artists, June 10th, 2009]

Of course, Madam Speaker. The leader of the Bloc Québécois and all of his colleagues, those who were elected in downtown Montreal, where were they? They did not stand and vote. They did not support the Quartier des spectacles, an important project in downtown Montreal that will make the Montreal Jazz Festival an even greater international attraction, that will support the cultural infrastructure of Montreal. They were nowhere to be seen.

That is the track record of the Bloc Québécois. I am getting a little sick and tired, after nine years of being in this House, that again and again the Bloc Québécois is totally ineffective, totally posturing with things like this, an empty motion which, at the end of the day, will mean nothing. And when it matters, in standing up for Quebec, for the Quartier des spectacles, in voting for a budget that increases funding for arts and culture and doing what will improve the quality of life of their constituents, the Bloc Québécois members would rather put forward empty motions, make empty speeches, make empty promises, put forward useless platforms, make all kinds of noise and in the end do absolutely nothing for Quebec and for Canadian culture.

[Artists, June 10th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I was not originally on the schedule to speak, but I heard this debate and I had to jump in the pool and swim a little with my colleagues who want to engage in a debate on this subject and I am very pleased to do so. We are debating Motion No. 297, a private member's motion moved by a member of the Bloc Québécois. There are a number of reasons to vote against this motion.

The motion reads in part:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should give direct assistance to artists by increasing the annual budget of the Canada Council for the Arts to $300 million and should roll back the cuts it announced in the cultural sector--

First of all, the figure of $300 million is rather arbitrary. I should note that it was our Conservative government that has increased funding in support of arts and culture in this country in every single one of our budgets.

The member of the Bloc Québécois just stood in the House and questioned whether or not the Conservatives believe in the arts. Of course we do.

In a time of international economic difficulty and economic recession, this Conservative government made the decision to invest more money into our communities, more money into museums, more money into arts training programs, more money into culture in this country, because we recognize the value of it to our economy and to the quality of life of Canadians.

This country's arts and culture industry employs over 650,000 Canadians, that is $46 billion to our economy. It is one of the largest industries in this country. It speaks to who we are as a people. It speaks to us as a country. It improves the quality of life of communities and of Canadians. It tells the great stories of our past and allows us to imagine a better future. Arts and culture is absolutely a key element to the future health of this country.

That is why our Conservative government has increased support for arts and culture by 8%. Every single one of the three opposition parties in the House in their speeches said that the Conservatives have cut arts and culture. It is not true. It is to mislead to stand in the House and to say that the Conservatives have cut culture. We have increased it in every single one of our budgets.

With regard to the subject matter of the motion, which is the Canada Council for the Arts, our government has increased funding to record levels, $181 million this year. Joe Rotman, the chair of the Canada Council, said our investments are “proof that the federal government supports the arts” through our funding of the Canada Council. The Canada Council understands that our government is making investments that are important to the future of artists across this country.

My Bloc Québécois colleague, the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, talked about the importance of touring. We understand the importance of supporting our artists on the international stage. That is why our government invested $22 million this year to help our artists on the international stage. That is an unprecedented amount.

She wants us to reinstate the Trade Routes program. That is what the motion we are debating calls for. Trade Routes is a $7 million program. Thus, it would cost $5 million to obtain $2 million in benefits. That is clear.

When I appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, she asked me these questions. I told her I was prepared to defend all of our decisions, but she was not interested.

She was not interested. In every single one of the decisions that was made in the strategic review of last June, I was prepared to go through item by item on every single one of them for as long as the committee wanted to sit and talk about it. I was prepared to talk about why the decisions were made, how much money was reallocated and why we are getting better value for taxpayers' dollars by investing in arts and culture. They were not interested in it, because unfortunately, parliamentary committees have become an extension of question period. Reasonable debate, thorough analysis and being able to speak for longer than one or two sentences are almost not possible any more in our parliamentary committees. That is unfortunate because there are a lot of good things to say.

The Canada Council for the Arts is an important institution in this country. These are artists deciding the investments with respect to other artists, artists helping artists. The government takes its hands off and makes an investment, and artists support artists through a peer review process that is well regarded and well respected. The Auditor General has examined the Canada Council. It has always been held in high regard, and the Auditor General has affirmed that assessment.

It is because the Canada Council does such a good job of investing in the best interests of Canadians through the arts that we have increased the money for the Canada Council to $181 million, a record level for the Canada Council. It was the Bloc Québécois that voted against it. Now the Bloc members stand in the House of Commons and put forward a motion saying that we should increase the budget for the Canada Council to $300 million. It is at $181 million this year. We have increased it to that level. They voted against it.

The Bloc put forward a private member's motion. If the Bloc members really believed in what they were talking about, they would have put forward an amendment to the budget. They would have put money where their mouths are. Instead, they put forward an empty motion that means nothing, so that the Bloc Québécois members can say in their flyers and newsletters in their districts that they are great members of Parliament, and they stood up for the arts and put forward a motion to increase funding for the Canada Council.

If the Bloc believed in arts and culture, it would be in the Bloc Québécois action plan that it presented in April. There is not a single word on arts and culture in its platform. If the Bloc believed in arts and culture, it would have been a centrepiece of the Liberal-Bloc-NDP coalition. It was not mentioned at all in the governing coalition that the Bloc Québécois wanted to lead.

Instead, there is a motion to increase funding to $300 million. That and 50¢ will get us a cup of coffee, but when push comes to shove, when it comes to standing up for the arts, it is our Conservative government that in every single budget has increased funding for arts and culture, overall by 8% and the Canada Council up to $181 million. That is record funding.

Not only that, but I will talk about some of the other things we have done. Cultural Spaces is an important part. We talk in our economic action plan about the importance of investing in infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels. It is about projects that improve not only the productivity of our economy but improve again the quality of life of Canadians.

We said that we were going to increase funding for Cultural Spaces, $60 million over two years. That is a massive increase in the budget for Cultural Spaces. That money is going to go to projects that will improve the quality of life of Canadians.

It is not just through Cultural Spaces. We have made all kinds of investments across the board on cultural infrastructure.

The Quartier des spectacles was a key project, one that was very important for the City of Montreal. We spoke with the mayor of Montreal, Mr. Tremblay. We had meetings and discussions, and we reached an agreement with him. The Conservative government is delivering the goods for the City of Montreal.

Where was the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert? Where was Gilles Duceppe? Gilles Duceppe, member of Parliament from downtown Montreal did nothing--

[Radio-Canada, June 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, year after year, in the last four Conservative budgets, the Conservative Party has kept its election promise to maintain or increase CBC/Radio-Canada's budget. That is what we did. We delivered the goods.

Unlike the Bloc Québécois. The Bloc's platform, Agir maintenant, its economic plan, does not even mention CBC/Radio-Canada. One would never guess that our public broadcaster was a priority for the Bloc Québécois.

[Protecting Victims From Sex Offenders Act, June 8th, 2009]

When Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister, I was seven and I don't come back to that.

[CBC/Radio-Canada, June 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we will keep the promise we made in the election campaign of maintaining or increasing the budget of CBC/Radio-Canada. That is what we have done. The $60 million for programming for CBC/Radio-Canada is in the budget. We will honour that commitment.

Let us be clear. There is a big difference between us and the Liberal Party. When it formed the government, it cut $414 million from CBC/Radio-Canada, or one third, causing the loss of over 4,000 jobs. We, on the other hand, have honoured our promise and invested in CBC/Radio-Canada.

[CBC/Radio-Canada, June 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said a number of times, our government, our political party, has promised in each of our election campaigns to maintain or increase CBC/Radio-Canada budgets. In each of our four budgets, we have increased the corporation's budget. I have in my hands two plans from the Bloc Québécois, the November 2008 plan for reviving the economy and "Agir maintenant", their aid plan of April 2009. Neither contains a single word on CBC/Radio-Canada—not a word. The Bloc says nothing and has no plan on this matter.

[Official Languages, June 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we respect the provinces' jurisdictions, but we also respect the fact that our Canada has two official languages.

[Official Languages, June 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the short answer is yes, absolutely.

I would like to add that our government and VANOC are working together to ensure that the Olympic Games are completely bilingual. The 1988 Olympic Games were a vast improvement over the 1976 Olympic Games and the 2010 Olympic Games will be a great improvement over the 1988 Games.

The 2010 Olympic Games will respect the official languages of Canada, period.

[Quebec Nation, June 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, we are making effective, appropriate investments. We recognized the Quebec nation because we want Quebec to be part of a united Canada, and because we respect the differences that exist in our country and our heritage.

We are investing money and we are being respectful. We are always happy to work with our partners from coast to coast to coast.