Heather McPherson - 20:19

Lib. (QC)
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On the first one, where you say that funding has been going down for museums, can you be more specific?
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Heather McPherson - 20:20

Lib. (QC)
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I don't have those numbers in front of me. I can tell you that about 10% of the emergency funding did go to a special museum program, $53 million, and we provided additional funding for the national museums.
That was announced in August, I believe, Madam Laurendeau?
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Hélène Laurendeau - 20:21
Heather McPherson - 20:22

Lib. (QC)
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It depends on how successful I am in convincing my colleague at Finance that it should be the case, but we're not quite there yet.
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Heather McPherson - 20:22

Lib. (QC)
Heather McPherson - 20:22

Lib. (QC)
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I'm also a big fan of CBC/Radio Canada. I've confessed so publicly before. The CBC was able to redirect some existing funds to help compensate for some of the challenges brought on by COVID-19. We are looking at measures to further help CBC in the coming months.
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Heather McPherson - 20:23
Martin Shields - 20:23

Lib. (QC)
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As part of the reform of the Broadcasting Act, hopefully, once the bill is approved by the House, cabinet will send the CRTC a directive. We want to ensure that there's an increased level of funding for indigenous productions, francophone productions and other equity-seeking groups. Since there will be a large increase in the amount of money available for cultural productions in Canada, we're confident that this will happen.
Let me give you another example. It's not specifically related to broadcasting, but I'm also responsible for the implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act. When we came into power in 2015, $5 million went to indigenous languages in Canada. That amount is at $40 million right now. It's going to be north of $50 million next year and at least $115 million...so that's 15 times what it was in 2015. Obviously, storytelling is intrinsically linked to language and culture. This is another way we're helping, by encouraging and making sure that indigenous peoples in this country can tell their stories.
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Martin Shields - 20:26
Kevin Waugh - 20:26

Lib. (QC)
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Hélène or Jean-Stéphen can correct me, but I believe there's been no increase in the CBC funding. I believe those media reports were inaccurate, unless I'm misunderstanding the question.
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Kevin Waugh - 20:27
Kevin Waugh - 20:27

Lib. (QC)
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The first thing I need to say is that the CBC is not a government organization; it's a public broadcaster. It's an independent broadcaster, an independent organization, with its own independent board.
As Minister of Heritage, I am not involved in the day-to-day decisions of the CBC. They make their own internal decisions.
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Kevin Waugh - 20:29
Scott Simms - 20:29

Lib. (QC)
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To be totally honest with you, I've been a bit busy this week with the broadcasting bill. I have heard of the story you're talking about; it's not something I've had a chance to look into in depth.
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Scott Simms - 20:29
Tim Louis - 20:29

Lib. (QC)
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One issue that was brought forward to us this summer by the sector is the fact that because of the pandemic they weren't able to get insurance for sets to go back.... Without insurance, they couldn't get funding from banks.
Believe it or not, the government is now in the business of insuring TV production and production sets. Who would have thought that this would be possible? The government provided a $50-million insurance fund for the audiovisual sector so that these productions can start again in Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia. The sector was very happy.
One thing we are looking at is the possibility of extending it. We are having ongoing conversations with the sector to make sure this measure is helpful and will continue to be, as long as it's needed.
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Tim Louis - 20:32

Lib. (QC)
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Well, we've clearly seen how successful Canadians are on the international scene with our TV production. For a number of our shows—Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience and, in French, District 31 and Les pêcheurs, which has become the first Quebec TV series to be bought by Netflix—we really punch above our weight.
I agree with you that we can't always put a price on that, but that $50-million insurance that we're providing the audiovisual sector will put 17,000 people back to work, and the economic benefits for Canada are in the billions of dollars. I don't have the exact number, but Jean-Stéphen could probably give you that very quickly.
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Tim Louis - 20:33

Lib. (QC)
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I think when history books are written about how Canada responded to COVID-19, they will talk about CERB, and they will talk about how, if you look at our G7 partners, Canada has been, if not the most generous country...to support Canadians, not just artists, but certainly artists.... If you put together all of the measures that we've taken, either directly or indirectly, for the arts and culture sector, the effort by the Canadian federal government has been above $4 billion of support for the sector—and counting, because we are announcing new measures.
I was talking earlier about the fact that we supported the ecosystem, but we also wanted to support people, and that's what we did with CERB and with the wage subsidy, to ensure that those who want to stay in the sector can do that and are supported in these difficult times.
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Scott Simms - 20:35
Caroline Desbiens - 20:35

Lib. (QC)
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As the results of our survey indicate quite well, there is some predictability. We told the artists that we would be there for them, and we were. We didn't let them down; we supported them. Compared to the support given to the arts sector and to artists by our G7 partners, Canada may not be number one, but it is certainly among the best.
In the last two months, I have spoken to 4,000 people in the sector. Not a week goes by without someone thanking our government for what it has done to support organizations, of course, but also individuals.
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Caroline Desbiens - 20:36

Lib. (QC)
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That's what we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic. Had it not been for the Canada emergency response benefit, these people, who have not—
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Caroline Desbiens - 20:37

Lib. (QC)
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The CERB will continue until mid-2021. So it is for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after that.
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Caroline Desbiens - 20:37

Lib. (QC)
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The pandemic is forcing us to revisit a number of things.
You probably listened to the Speech from the Throne. We did point out that we may have to review a number of our programs. Our social safety net may not have been as good as we thought it was because we had to put measures in place. However, we have done that and we have not let those people down.
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Caroline Desbiens - 20:38
Heather McPherson - 20:38

Lib. (QC)
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Not in any great level of detail, but maybe Hélène can.... The NFB did get an injection of money for their move from the old office to the new office, so that temporarily inflated their budget, I think that's part of what you're seeing, but maybe there's something else.
Hélène, can I turn to you, or Jean-Stéphen?
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Hélène Laurendeau - 20:39
Kevin Waugh - 20:41

Lib. (QC)
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That's a very good question. They would have been eligible for some of the measures we have put forward.
We are looking at different things we could do. There are discussions with them about a potential tournament that could happen in the very near future in Canada, obviously in discussion with PHAC and provincial or regional health authorities to ensure that, if we do find ways to have big tournaments, they would be done very safely from a public health perspective.
In terms of direct support, some of the funding you're referring to from the Quebec government is in part the money that the federal government gave to provinces to support their provincial or regional leagues.
Jean-Stéphen, I can't remember if we did something specific for the Canadian Hockey League.
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Jean-Stéphen Piché - 20:43
Hélène Laurendeau - 20:44
Kevin Waugh - 20:44
Scott Aitchison - 20:44

Lib. (QC)
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I don't have the definition in front of me, but Jean-Stéphen or Hélène, can you reply?
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Hélène Laurendeau - 20:45
Kody Blois - 20:47

Lib. (QC)
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Mr. Blois, are you specifically referring to emergency funding or normal ongoing funding?
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Kody Blois - 20:48

Lib. (QC)
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Of the $500 million emergency funding we provided to the overall heritage sector, $72 million was earmarked for sports and basically split in half. Half went to national organizations, and the other half was distributed through territories and provinces to support provincial, regional, organizations with which normally Canadian Heritage doesn't really have a relationship.
One thing that was very helpful for provinces with smaller populations is that we allocated that money, not based on population, but based on the number of organizations in the province or the territory, so proportionally, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon got a larger share of that roughly $35 million or $36 million than they would have normally had, because what we were trying to do was keep the sports ecosystem, in place, especially in smaller communities.
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Kody Blois - 20:49

Lib. (QC)
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Actually, we honoured all of our agreements with perhaps a few exceptions. Basically, when COVID hit, the decision we took was that we would honour agreements we had with organizations, whether the event or what was supposed to be funded happened or not. If you were doing a music tour, a summer festival or a theatre competition, if it was postponed or cancelled, we told the organization to keep the money and use it wisely. There was no way we were going to pull that money, and those organizations needed the funding, so we were very flexible.
We were also very flexible with the emergency funding; it wasn't attached to specific activities. It was really there to try to help organizations, so, if you were already a recipient of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts or Telefilm support, you almost automatically got up to a 25% top-up of what you'd previously received from the federal government. The funding structure was a bit different for organizations that do not normally receive funding from the federal government, but that, in a nutshell, is how we did it.
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Kody Blois - 20:51

Lib. (QC)
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I can't tell them what to do, but I do talk to them from time to time.
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Kody Blois - 20:52
Scott Simms - 20:52
Scott Aitchison - 20:53

Lib. (QC)
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I don't have the answer to that question, and I don't know if Hélène or Jean-Stéphen do. If we don't, we can certainly find that answer and provide it to you.
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Hélène Laurendeau - 20:53
Scott Aitchison - 20:54

Lib. (QC)
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For example, there's the Canada summer jobs program. Summer camps would be eligible for that. That's a clear example, but in terms of Heritage per se, as Hélène was saying, we don't have programs to support summer camps. There may be instances under the youth branch of the department where we could do that, and maybe in another ministry such as tourism perhaps there's something. We would have to look into it.
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Scott Aitchison - 20:55
Alain Rayes - 20:55

Lib. (QC)
Alain Rayes - 20:55

Lib. (QC)
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Yes, we can provide you with that information.
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Alain Rayes - 20:56

Lib. (QC)
Alain Rayes - 20:56