Canadian Heritage committee  That is an excellent question and the answer is no.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would also point out that, in general, the arts and culture sector accounts for about 3.1% of GDP, if memory serves, and about the same percentage of jobs. So the sector has a major economic impact and contributes to the development of our communities. There is no doubt that it is an economic driver.

Canadian Heritage committee  This project also has a virtual aspect, namely, that these various creative centres will be connected across the country. We have heard—and Canadian Heritage officials also said this at the outset—that this aspect will be considered in the second or third phase. In our opinion, given our situation, namely, that our communities are spread out, we have to consider this aspect very early in the process, if not right now.