Canadian Heritage committee  I'll give you a little list at the end of my talk, but on the issue of equity between the players, if the issue of equity is front and centre, then the problem that Troy talked about will go away, because if they're not paying the fees, then the Canadian broadcasters should not b

Canadian Heritage committee  It's easy. You have the powers under the act to make a direction to the commission. You'd make a direction to the commission to close the digital media exemption. I think that's the government's plan anyhow in the context of the bill. You'd order them to close it, and then you'd

Canadian Heritage committee  The same system would be used because the current tax credits and the Canada media fund are based on the same system. On the subject of content protection, as I said, the most important thing is to ensure that programs are distinctly Canadian or Quebec. For that reason, I think

Canadian Heritage committee  I must say I'm with Troy. I worry about the.... It's very curious. The commission over-regulates the Canadian industry and, as Troy says, under-regulates the foreign broadcasters. The reason why we have this issue in Canada now, 10 years after Netflix started, is that the commiss

Canadian Heritage committee  What The Tangled Garden argues is that news generally, including local news, should be put on the same footing as drama, comedy or kids shows. It should get the same level of financial support that we provide to those kinds of shows. This would be an enormous shot in the arm for

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. I'd be happy to. What we have is an employment-based system right now. It's a 10-point system. You get two points for a director, two points for a writer, one point for each of the lead actors and so on. We say that a Canadian show is something made by a Canadian. That's w

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. It tells none of our stories and it shows none of our people. This has historically been the case, where Canadians have made shows but they've often disguised Toronto as Chicago or whatever it happens to be. Even if you take something like Schitt's Creek, which is an enorm

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, I don't think it reduces choice; it increases choice. What will happen is that when the streamers are obligated to pay in the same way that Global and Corus are obligated to pay in terms of the development of Canadian content, you'll have more Canadian content and more choi

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the bill's fine and it should move ahead. I don't think you should make perfect the enemy of the good. As we were talking about earlier, the bill should have been brought in 10 years ago, so now it's very important for you to move the bill quickly and expeditiously.

Canadian Heritage committee  As far as I'm concerned, it's years past due, for all the reasons that Troy was talking about. I mean, the endless loss of advertising revenue, which has been in fact accelerated as a result of the—

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. Is that better? I think it's past time. We've found ourselves in this crazy situation for 10 years now. As Troy was saying, this level of unfairness is completely corrosive to the production of Canadian shows and Canadian culture. The faster you can move it, the better.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not sure I fully understand the deal with Facebook in Australia. The deal, as I understood it originally.... In fact, I had written a little article with Kevin Chan, who represents Facebook in Canada, saying that the original Australian deal wasn't a sensible deal, because in

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the key thing is that the centerpiece of the bill—which will require foreign broadcasters like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ to contribute in the same way as current Canadian broadcasters—will make a very significant improvement in the watering of the garden. For example,

Canadian Heritage committee  I hope so. I'm going to tell you how to reform the Canadian point system.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for inviting me. It's a great pleasure to be here. My name is Richard Stursberg. I am the author, with Stephen Armstrong, of The Tangled Garden: A Canadian Cultural Manifesto for the Digital Age. We were honoured to have our book shortlisted