Mr. Speaker, this is my first time speaking since the beginning of this Parliament, following the election earlier this year. I would like to begin by thanking the voters in my riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine for granting me the privilege and honour of representing them for a fourth term.
I am especially pleased to speak to the House today on the Liberal Party's motion on the ratification of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. One reason for my enthusiasm is the fact that I had the honour and privilege of accompanying the hon. Sheila Copps, then minister of canadian heritage, to Cape Town, South Africa, in the fall of 2003 for a UNESCO meeting with our partners, the members, to discuss such a convention on cultural diversity.
Ms. Copps was also joined by the Quebec culture minister. As a Quebecker, I was especially proud to see both my federal and provincial ministers address their counterparts from other countries and highlight the importance of protecting cultural diversity by means of an international convention and ensuring that cultural goods and services do not become part of international trade or an international trade body. Both ministers highlighted the importance of cultural diversity in ensuring a country's cultural sovereignty.
Bearing in mind the question posed just now by a Conservative member to my colleague who spoke before me, I would like to read the Liberal motion:
That, in view of the ratification by Canada of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the House insist that the government, its departments and agencies maintain the program policies and regulations in support of Canada's artistic sector and cultural industries, in particular, by maintaining or enhancing: (a) existing Canadian cultural content requirements; (b) current restrictions on foreign ownership in the cultural sector; and (c) financial support for public broadcasting in both official languages.
I must say that our critic in this area, the member for Ottawa —Vanier, is quite concerned by the attitude of the current government regarding the protection of our cultural diversity, our artistic expressions and our artistic and cultural industries. We have no guarantees that the current government will protect, maintain and promote these industries, or promote cultural diversity.
For example, let us take a look at the CRTC, the central Canadian agency responsible for regulating and monitoring Canada's audiovisual sector. The Liberals continue to believe that the CRTC helps our national audiovisual system achieve its objectives. However, we believe that, in the current era, the CRTC must continually and systematically review its regulatory policies and regulations in order to assess whether or not they meet the established objectives and whether these objectives remain valid with the passing of time.
We Liberals, we in the Liberal Party in this House, have a Canadian content strategy. Our Canadian content strategy is to place more emphasis on high-quality Canadian content that is of interest to large French-speaking or English-speaking audiences, in which Canadians see themselves reflected and which embodies the full diversity of our country.
When we talk about the diversity of our country, we are also talking about linguistic diversity. Canada has two official languages. We are also talking about ethnocultural diversity. Canada has many ethnocultural communities, whose members come from virtually every country in the world.
We are also talking about our aboriginal people, the first nations. In almost all respects, Canada is the embodiment of the word “diversity”, at every level.
Our strategy is also to promote spending on Canadian theatre, children’s programming, cultural programming and documentaries that reach large audiences, as a priority.
It also provides for giving the CBC/Radio-Canada specific funding to enable it to broadcast a wide range of programming, as it is directed to do by its mission, to serve the public.
And our strategy involves a number of measures for simplifying funding, to improve profitability and prioritizing.
The Liberal Party has proposed that the CRTC be asked to prepare annual reports on what it has done to simplify its rules, regulations and decision-making processes. In addition, we, the Liberal Party, also want to look into the possibility of providing for financial penalties in addition to the methods now available to the CRTC to enforce the regulations governing the audiovisual industry. This is important because it is the CRTC that regulates the entire audiovisual aspect of the cultural industry, and so it would be reasonable for it to have the means to ensure proper compliance with the regulations by the industry and the companies that make it up.
In a letter dated September 30, 2005, the President of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association proposed a new policy framework for Canadian television content. Among other things, he called for structural changes to the Broadcasting Act; a revision of the CRTC’s 1999 Television Policy to bring back mandatory minimum spending on programming by conventional broadcasters; an increase in tax credits to 30% of eligible spending by producers; a $95 million per year increase in the government’s contribution to the Canadian Television Fund; and adjustment of the eligibility criteria for the Canadian Television Fund to raise the level of broadcasters’ investments in programs that receive funding from that fund.
This is one example. If the government adopted the recommendations made by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, it would have another method of ensuring that Canadian cultural diversity, in artistic expression and in our cultural industries, not only is preserved and protected, but is also given the opportunity to grow, to develop, to expand, and to play an even more important role in our society and our economy, with all of the implications this would have.
I will close by saying that we also need financial support for the audiovisual industry in both official languages.
The motion is an important one. In my opinion, this motion would be supported by a large majority of Canadians in all ten provinces, including my own, and the three territories. I ask my colleagues to support this motion.
