Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:24

Lib. (QC)
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As a Canadian, I would be one to believe in Canadian heritage from coast to coast to coast, but just last week, I was on the phone with the Alberta heritage minister, Minister Aheer, to talk about how we can collaborate to support the work that we do at the federal level, but at the provincial level as well.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:25

Lib. (QC)
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I believe all parts of Canada's heritage are important to Canada: western heritage, eastern heritage, northern heritage, first nations—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:25

Lib. (QC)
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If you have suggestions in terms of what it is we can do to help support different parts of Canada's heritage ecosystem, we would be happy to consider them.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:25

Lib. (QC)
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I have tried to outline how our entire heritage ecosystem is under threat right now, from coast to coast to coast. Artists are finding it very difficult right now in Ontario, in Alberta, in Saskatchewan and—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:26

Lib. (QC)
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:26
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:26

Lib. (QC)
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My role is to support artists throughout this country. Many of our programs are available to organizations in every part of the country.
We're supporting artists in every part of the country. In western Canada as—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:27

Lib. (QC)
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I can't give you an exact answer for the ratio. We could provide you with that information. As you know, that information is public. What I can tell you is that—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:27

Lib. (QC)
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Over the last few weeks, I have spoken with thousands of people from across the country, from every corner of the country—thousands.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:27

Lib. (QC)
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What I can tell you is that the Alberta heritage minister has saluted my leadership to help artists and athletes throughout the COVID-19 crisis on a number of occasions publicly, and—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:28

Lib. (QC)
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Madam Chair, I believe I have. I believe I have a number of times, but—
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Sherry Romanado - 18:29
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:31

Lib. (QC)
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I think I have answered your question a number of times regarding—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:31

Lib. (QC)
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—western heritage. As I said, I had—just last week—a conversation with the Alberta heritage minister. I've had several conversations with the Alberta heritage minister—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:32

Lib. (QC)
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—to see how we can help and support the heritage sector in Alberta and Saskatchewan, throughout Canada. I'm working closely with allies from across the country to do that.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 18:32
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith - 18:35

Lib. (QC)
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Thank you for the question.
I'm not sure. I haven't seen the article you're referring to. What I can tell you is that we have been supporting local journalism through an investment of $50 million over five years, which means that this year 200 journalists will be hired in communities that are not as well served from a media perspective as others. The ad-buy campaign we just did on COVID-19 for $30 million was distributed among more than 900 newspapers across the country, 500 radio stations and TV stations in 12 different languages. I think we value the diversity of the media ecosystem in Canada and—
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Nathaniel Erskine-Smith - 18:36

Lib. (QC)
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Yes, we are looking very carefully at what France and Australia have done. As you may be aware, they've acted through their competition bureaus. We are looking at the mechanisms we have in Canada. Obviously, legislation and regulation among countries differs, so these types of bodies don't necessarily have the same types of powers, but we are looking at this very closely.
We've said for many months that we want the web giants to do their fair share, and clearly right now they're not. If we can use existing tools to make that happen, we will. If we need to create new tools, we will.
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Nathaniel Erskine-Smith - 18:38
Lloyd Longfield - 18:58

Lib. (QC)
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Thank you for the question. It's an important question and an important point. On what we're trying to do with this funding, this is not funding for the recovery, for when we are no longer confined. This is really emergency funding to help as many of our arts and cultural organizations as possible make it through the first wave of the crisis.
We clearly understand that we will need to do more. The Prime Minister has said it, and I've said it many times. We will do more to support our heritage, cultural and arts organizations as we rebuild, as we recover from COVID-19. That is not what those funds are destined for. They're emergency funds to help them make it through that first wave of the crisis.
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Lloyd Longfield - 19:00

Lib. (QC)
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As far as organizations are concerned, I would encourage you to send them to the Canadian Heritage website. Canadian Heritage doesn't directly fund artists. The Canada Council for the Arts does. As I said earlier in my remarks, they have received additional funding to support arts organizations and artists as well.
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Lloyd Longfield - 19:00

Lib. (QC)
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As someone who has published three books, I know a bit about the issue of copyright and editors. I've worked with many of them. This is an issue that's very dear to my heart. It is in my mandate letter. The Prime Minister has asked me to look into this. I'm assisted in that task by the member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth, who, you may remember, was chair of the heritage committee that worked on the copyright issue. The file is in good hands, and we will be moving on it as fast as we can.
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Lloyd Longfield - 19:01
Tracy Gray - 19:05

Lib. (QC)
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This is entirely for local media. That fund is dedicated to local media.
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Tracy Gray - 19:06

Lib. (QC)
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We would be happy to provide you with the information as to how a media outlet could apply for that funding.
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Tracy Gray - 19:06

Lib. (QC)
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I could get you the breakdown. What I can tell you is that 97% of it went to Canadian media and, as I said earlier, to 900 print and 500 TV and radio stations across the country, in different languages—Farsi, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, French and English obviously.
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Tracy Gray - 19:07
Majid Jowhari - 19:07

Lib. (QC)
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I thank the member from Richmond Hill for the question. It is a really important issue, which is why, as I was just saying, the ad campaign we did for $30 million on the COVID-19 was done in 12 different languages.
As part of the $500 million, there is $70 million that was set aside for local news media organizations across the country to help support them through this crisis, including third-language media across the country. Beyond the wage subsidy and beyond the $30 million, there's an extra $70 million that will go to help support these news organizations, on top of the other $50 million that I was talking about earlier on, which we adopted in the 2019 budget specifically for local media.
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Majid Jowhari - 19:10
Martin Champoux - 19:13

Lib. (QC)
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I thank the member for Drummondville for his question.
With regard to advertising, you will recall that your party asked us several times about investment in advertising, namely that there was not enough advertising in the Canadian media, or that there was too much.
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Martin Champoux - 19:14

Lib. (QC)
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Yes, I'm getting to it.
We ran a publicity campaign that was 97% invested in Canadian media.
Advertising is one of the elements, but I could tell you about the $70 million that was set aside for local media in the $500-million envelope that was announced last week.
As far as the tax credit is concerned, everything is now in place to give access to the $595 million that will be available.
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Martin Champoux - 19:15

Lib. (QC)
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I'm always open to discussion with the member from Drummondville.
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Sherry Romanado - 19:15
Earl Dreeshen - 19:18

Lib. (QC)
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I thank the member for Red Deer for his question and for his passion for the arts and culture, which we have in common.
Heritage is an issue for all Canadians, in all of its diversity and distinction across the country. Our goal is to help arts and cultural organizations across the country to make it through this crisis, regardless of where they are.
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Earl Dreeshen - 19:22
Earl Dreeshen - 19:22

Lib. (QC)
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As I said, last week we unveiled details of how the money would be spent to help many different types of arts, heritage and cultural organizations across the country.
I can give you a clear example of where we're helping Albertan organizations more than we would normally for the rest of the country. On the sports side of things, we decided to allocate the money to provinces, not in relation to the number of people in the province but in relation to the number of provincial sports organizations. To its credit, Alberta has way more provincial sports organizations than many other Canadian provinces or territories. Therefore, Alberta will be getting a bigger share of the sports money, that aid, than it would under normal federal-provincial agreements solely based on population.
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Earl Dreeshen - 19:23

Lib. (QC)
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You wanted a clear example of something that the federal government is doing to help Albertans, so there you go.
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Earl Dreeshen - 19:23
Emmanuella Lambropoulos - 19:24

Lib. (QC)
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I thank the member for Saint-Laurent for the question.
As an environmentalist, I tend to look at things as ecosystems. Frankly, I would do the same with regard to the arts, hospitality sector and restaurants. They go hand in hand. They were among the first sectors that were hit—and tourism, obviously—and they are probably going to be the last ones to come back to normal, or a new normal.
That is why our government has been looking at this with an ecosystemic approach: What can I do on the heritage side of things in collaboration with what my colleague Hon. Mélanie Joly can do on the tourism side of things, and what my colleague Hon. Mary Ng can do on the small and medium-sized businesses side of things, so that once we make it through this crisis, our ecosystems are still intact and we are able to pick it up and start running again?
In answer to your second question, we do not know the scale of the economic impacts in the coming months. We are starting to have some idea, but we will need to have more information.
I want to quickly quote the Montreal board of trade, which saluted our $500-million aid package that was announced last week for arts, culture and sports organizations as something that will be significant for Montreal and the greater Montreal communities.
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Emmanuella Lambropoulos - 19:27

Lib. (QC)
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Yes, and thank you for the question.
As I said, of the $500 million, $72 million will go to the sports sector. Of that $72 million, roughly half will go to national federations such as Sport Canada and different types of sports federations. The other half will go to provincial and territorial organizations. Through our partnership with them, the money will be flowing through provinces and territories.
There's also $5 million that we set aside to help our athletes prepare for the next Olympics. The postponement of the Olympics created all sorts of logistical and financial problems for our athletes, so we wanted to set aside some money to make sure we could be there for them.
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Emmanuella Lambropoulos - 19:28
Sherry Romanado - 19:31

Lib. (QC)
Hon. Maryam Monsef - 19:31
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:31

Lib. (QC)
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What we're trying to do with this money—and obviously, it's not the federal government doing the work. We've partnered with three organizations across Canada: la Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:32
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:33

Lib. (QC)
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There is also la Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, to help Canadians have access to the best possible information on COVID-19, which I think—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:33
Sherry Romanado - 19:33

Lib. (QC)
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As I was trying to say, Madam Chair, it's not up to the government to decide. We're working with these organizations so that they can help Canadians better understand and have access to the most important information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:34

Lib. (QC)
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Again, Madam Chair, if it's the same question, it's going to be the same answer.
We are working with these organizations, such as the Quebec federation of professional journalists, so that they can provide Canadians with the best possible information and help them detect...because unfortunately there are people who are trying to scam Canadians.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:35
Sherry Romanado - 19:35
Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:35

Lib. (QC)
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Same question, same answer. It's not the government that's going to decide. We're working with organizations, third parties, so we have independent.... As a signatory of the Buffalo Declaration, you should understand what independence means from—
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:35

Lib. (QC)
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I would point out that you are alleging that these statements are false.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:36

Lib. (QC)
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All I said was that the allegation came from you.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:36

Lib. (QC)
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They didn't come from these organizations is what I'm saying.
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Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner - 19:36

Lib. (QC)
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They did not come from la Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick, la Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec or the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
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Sherry Romanado - 19:37
Gudie Hutchings - 19:37

Lib. (QC)
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There are a number of things that we've done very early on. When the crisis started, one of the things that Canadian Heritage announced—it's the same with the Canada Council for the Arts—was that we would honour our existing agreements with organizations for events that were planned, whether or not these events took place. What we told organizations was that, within reason, they could use the funds from the federal government to compensate some of the losses related to COVID-19.
We have accelerated the deployment of existing programs. Also, what we wanted to make sure of was that broader economic measures that were adopted by the federal government would be accessible for arts, cultural and sports organizations. We wanted to make sure that if an author receives a copyright cheque, it doesn't disqualify him from being able to apply for the CERB. As an author myself, and as someone who receives very small copyright cheques every now and then from my editor, that's never for money you've made in the last 14 days. It's for money you made six months ago, or a year or a year and a half ago.
We made sure that the more economy-wide programs we had were well adjusted and adapted to the arts and culture sector. On top of that, we've announced this $500-million emergency aid package to help where more help is needed.
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Gudie Hutchings - 19:39

Lib. (QC)
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The answer to your first question—I almost interrupted you, my apologies—is yes, absolutely. Our programs are going ahead. Grants and contributions are continuing to happen within Canadian Heritage.
On the second part of your question, the answer is yes. One of the things we are doing is showing the maximum flexibility that we can within our current programs. They weren't designed for the COVID-19 pandemic, so we have to adapt them as quickly as possible and give the flexibility that our partner organizations need to make it through this crisis.
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Gudie Hutchings - 19:40

Lib. (QC)
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If there is one piece of advice I would give Canadians, it's to go to trusted news information. Go to your local, regional, provincial and federal health care agencies to get the best possible information. We've seen all sorts of things on the web, many of them, unfortunately, misleading or simply wrong regarding COVID-19. It's important that people verify the source and verify the information they're getting.
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Gudie Hutchings - 19:41

Lib. (QC)
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It's just like doctors, I guess. Get a second opinion.
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Gudie Hutchings - 19:42
Sébastien Lemire - 19:42

Lib. (QC)
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I thank the member for Abitibi--Témistamingue for his question.
I'll be pleased to forward this question to my colleagues Ms. Monsef and Mr. Bains. As you know, this does not fall under the purview of the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
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Sébastien Lemire - 19:43

Lib. (QC)
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Again, I'm not able to answer that question.
Can the deputy minister answer the question, if he is still present?
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Simon Kennedy - 19:44
Brian Masse - 19:45

Lib. (QC)
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As heritage minister, I cannot answer that question. I believe Deputy Minister Kennedy is still on the call—
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Brian Masse - 19:46

Lib. (QC)
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I would like to remind the member from Windsor West that we are investing $6 billion in the deployment of the network.
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Brian Masse - 19:47
Sherry Romanado - 19:47

Lib. (QC)
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Madam Chair, I must leave. I could stay on a bit longer, but unfortunately I can stay no longer.
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Sherry Romanado - 19:48

Lib. (QC)
Sherry Romanado - 19:48