Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Chair, I am reluctant to suggest questions that the committee should be asking the witnesses.

Canadian Heritage committee  The funding is holding steady.

Canadian Heritage committee  My answer is very simple. Let’s say that the fund has an envelope of approximately $25 million. A portion of the core funding will expire in two, three, four or five years. This amount was injected in the early 2000s and it was not permanent funding, in the sense that it had to be renewed each year or every three years.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's domestic market share.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thanks for your question. I can't speak for artists and I can't speak for their labels or their companies in terms of thanking public support for production. We do certainly hear, and we read clippings every day, and we're at the Junos.... We watch interviews of artists. Not all of them are thanking the Canada music fund or the government.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll be making the presentation, and if it's okay with the committee, it's about 12 minutes, 30 seconds.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. I take it that you've all received a copy of the deck that we have prepared. The document is written in both French and English. The Department of Canadian Heritage is thankful for this opportunity to appear before the committee in the context of its study of the Canadian music industry.

Official Languages committee  Yes, Le Madawaska is in my notes.

Official Languages committee  I'm going to follow my line, because it's in very small print. Le Madawaska received...

Official Languages committee  Mr. Godin, we don't make a distinction as to who the ultimate owner of a community newspaper is. There is a per-title ceiling and that is the only limit we impose. For example, there are magazines put out by empires that are really not very profitable. The empire is profitable, but the paper isn't necessarily.

Official Languages committee  Ms. Guay, I can assure you that checking is done, because in our view, the applicant is the publisher. It isn't Pierre Karl Péladeau writing, it's the publisher of one of the periodicals.

Official Languages committee  So I can assure you that we do our checking, with due diligence.

Official Languages committee  You have to look at the number of titles too.

Official Languages committee  Are these publications? I haven't read that...

Official Languages committee  The program has limited resources. Scott mentioned that we would need a 300% increase if we agreed to that. Decisions have to be made. The traditional model didn't include free publications. You say that you have an opportunity to read and you buy community newspapers or magazines.