Canadian Heritage committee  Is it called “volunteer” if you're actually sinking your own money into the organization?

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't know...I'm kind of paying to run the organization. Buffer Festival started 10 years ago out of the Canadian Film Centre. We started a not-for-profit called the “Buffer Foundation” to train indigenous youth on reservations and teach them how to become storytellers. Coming out of that, COVID hit, and then Bill C-10 hit, and we realized that there needed to be an organization to speak for digital first creators because they were about to get railroaded, so we built Digital First Canada—

Canadian Heritage committee  —as a creator-led organization—

Canadian Heritage committee  Right now, this piece of legislation will have a dramatic effect on almost every creator who earns a living online, so yes, we are absolutely laser-focused on Bill C-11. It is a problem. By the way, I also have a day job. This is something that I'm doing for passion, and something I believe in, which is why I'm doing it.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're really just providing information as best we can back to the creators themselves because, like I said, they don't have a lobby group.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, there wasn't an election to my position. Our organization is generally about three months old, and we're working through all of that now. We're new here.

Canadian Heritage committee  I just didn't realize that I had to register as a lobbyist.

Canadian Heritage committee  When we formalize the board, yes. That paperwork is currently sitting with PR departments of different organizations. We don't have functional members. We're not making people pay to join our organization.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. We run workshops all the time. In fact, we did a program called “Road to Freedom”, where we went into indigenous communities and trained young indigenous voices on how to be digital creators. We left behind gear, information and infrastructure for them to continue to be Canadian storytellers.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, many times.

Canadian Heritage committee  Do I have a chance to explain it?

Canadian Heritage committee  To be completely honest, I had no idea this act existed up until about a month ago. digital first creators have never had to operate under any rules or regulations to make themselves successful. We've never really needed the government to intervene on our behalf, so this is all relatively new to us.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct. In fact, our organization didn't exist before Bill C-10, and I hope it doesn't exist six months from now, but we'll see where that goes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mrs. Thomas. To address the first point, about creators coming to committee, I'd like to thank the committee, actually, for having us involved, finally, in these discussions. Digital first creators don't have lobby groups. We don't have associations. That's why, Mr.