Canadian Heritage committee  It's just much faster. The online ticketing is the big change. There wasn't very much online ticketing, and now it's instantaneous and international. There's a lot more money to be made.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would add one thing to that. The business is a location-specific business, and even if tax law can be applied to where the event takes place, that might keep some of the money in Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. It's partly what Garth Brooks does and what Adele does. It's a type of holding back of tickets. That's where it gets complicated, because as we talked about before, holding back tickets is artificial. It means that whoever is selling the tickets can control who gets priorit

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't know.

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, I can't speak to the tax situation, but I think technology might be helpful here. If technology could be as fast as the so-called bots that buy tickets to keep scanning these sites, that $6,300 Raptors ticket goes away. We know that sale went through StubHub, to at least g

Canadian Heritage committee  That's why I took screenshots. They do say that this can't happen, but within a few seconds of each other, I looked for exactly the same game on StubHub and on Ticketmaster. Companies say that this is impossible, but it clearly is possible. Did I go through the system and buy a $

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, if they showed up at the arena and couldn't get in, they would get reimbursed if they paid that money.

Canadian Heritage committee  I did not do that purchase, but my understanding is that those tickets were available for that game on StubHub.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, of course. I think the difference is that the sports events will go ahead regardless, whereas with a music event, even with a top artist, if tickets don't sell, the show will be cancelled.

Canadian Heritage committee  There were examples. I think it was last summer there were a couple of high-profile tours—one was the Jay-Z tour—where ticket prices were very.... The euphemism is soft. Some of those shows were cancelled. It can even be big venue and big artist shows. Promoters are taking a risk

Canadian Heritage committee  To the extent that the federal government can have best practices and consistency in user protection, that is where the federal government has a role. By user, I mean the ticket buyer. It could help to have ways for the industry as a whole to identify legitimate tickets, to consi

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. I'm going to focus on three areas in my opening comments. The first is about the user considerations, the second about business considerations and the third about how, possibly, to expand the market and access. First of all, I'll talk about improvements and consisten