Canadian Heritage committee  We're going to have to put some people on the Yann Martel book list. I don't agree that our younger Canadians need to be dumbed down to. I think they are young, electronic, savvy, and cool, and they have a literary hunger and a cultural hunger that needs to be addressed. And we do them a disservice by making assumptions on their behalf as to what they want to hear.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes and no. Our concern is that there were more programs on CBC radio. They did interviews of writers and literary works, and these have been replaced with what we've been referring to as the “dumbing-down”. We've met with CBC senior staff, and they have told us that they're trying to reach a broader audience, a younger audience, and therefore programming that was there for literary programs, arts, and cultural dialogue has been removed and replaced with elevator music.

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay.

Canadian Heritage committee  Of course, that is true. I come from Nova Scotia, and my family is Acadian. It's only been quite recently that the expulsion of the Acadians has been actually recognized. These are our stories--the stories of the Acadians, the stories of the franco-Ontarians, and the stories of Whitehorse in the Yukon.

Canadian Heritage committee  My name is Deborah Windsor, and I'm the executive director of the Writers' Union of Canada. I'm delighted to be here. Good morning. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to participate in the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage's investigation into the role of CBC/Radio-Canada as a public broadcaster in the 21st century.

Finance committee  In the Stoddart case, I knew that the books were lost, so we put out a call to ask writers how many had been affected, and if they could prove it by their royalty statements. We found more than 700 that one fall, for millions of dollars.

Finance committee  Thank you. It's nice to know another Haligonian is here.

Finance committee  Yes, we would like to see it doubled, as was promised by Minister Oda. I missed the third question.

Finance committee  I have to agree.

Finance committee  Very well.

Finance committee  The answer to your first question is that the average income of Canadian writers from their writing income--whether it be books, magazines, whatever, because they are multipreneurs to generate an income--is, based on a study done last year by Canadian Heritage, $13,000 a year. I think the next question you asked was about the actual amount of funding to Canada Council--

Finance committee  The question is not whether or not the writer is unemployed. The writer will always write. Our concern is when a writer takes on a secondary job in order to generate revenue for sustenance, basically buying time to write, and they're working at that job and they lose that job. The job is terminated for whatever reason for which normally an employee would be entitled to receive EI.

Finance committee  No, there is no way to police it. However, the industry is one based on trust. The writers have to trust the publishers that their royalty statements are adequate. The publishers have to trust the bookstores that they are going to buy the books they want when they order their print run.

Finance committee  Yes. The way that works is that if they--

Finance committee  It is wide and vast. The foundation of that would be the writers. You identify movies, but for every movie there is a writer; for every dance, there is a creator who creates the story behind it. For every book, for every novel, for every single discipline within the cultural industry, there is a writer.