CCA Bulletin 26/06

Ottawa, June 5, 2006

Late Spring Echoes from the Hill

The Hon. Bev Oda appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Thursday June 1 to discuss her Department's priorities. Obviously, like so many other things on the Hill these days, the proceedings were largely coloured by electoral preoccupations. The Minister spent a considerable amount of time and effort reading segments of her opening 10 minute statement in French and talking about the Francophone Secretariat that the Conservative party has promised it would create within the Department of Canadian Heritage (more about that in a moment). Unfortunately, a "last minute scheduling conflict" prevented Ms Oda from appearing for the full two-hour question and answer session she had been convened to, allowing for only one hour of discussion. This was met with some chagrin from opposition party committee members who had a considerable number of questions they wanted to raise and were limited to two rounds of five minutes each including, as they learned on the spot, the time the Minister took to answer.

Thus, those in attendance, including staff from the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), did not learn much about the Canadian Heritage Minister's priorities beyond generalities on the Francophone Secretariat and the repeated desire of the Government to support arts and culture in ways appropriate to the context created by new technologies. The Minister noted with some satisfaction the inclusion of $50 million to be added over two years to the Canada Council budget as part of the May 2 federal Budget. There was a hint that this money will be added on a permanent basis, which may be good news even if the amount falls well short of what is needed. Ms Oda also trumpeted the significance of the announced removal of the rest of the capital gains tax on publicly traded securities given to charities and mentioned that within days of this announcement, some $85 M in donations to cultural organizations had been reported to her office!

In response to insistent questions from the Liberal Canadian Heritage critic, Ms Oda promised that she would present Members of the Standing Committee with the terms of reference she intends to set for the upcoming review of the CBC mandate, though she did not identify when this would happen. While repeating the Government's wholehearted support for the notion of Canadian public broadcasting, Ms. Oda also commented that it would be premature to talk about the level of funding the CBC may require until such time as the mandate review is carried out, as this will determine what kind of programming Canadians want from their public broadcaster and on what platforms such programming should be presented.

As for the Francophone Secretariat promised during the recent federal election, it would appear that Minister Oda is set to have a very speedy consultation on the subject. Some 30 odd organizations, both from within and outside of Québec, have been hastily contacted by phone over the past week to see if they could participate in a one-day roundtable discussion on Friday June 9 to define the role and nature of this new structure. Plenary sessions are scheduled, along with working sessions, and Ministers Oda, the Hon. Josee Verner (Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages) and the Hon. Lawrence Cannon (Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities) are expected to spend some time with representatives from various arts and cultural organizations. The CCA has been invited to participate and expects to receive confirmation some discussion papers shortly. Unfortunatley, like so many not for profit organizations at this time of year, the CCA is having a Board meeting and Annual General Meeting on June 10 and 11. While the CCA thinks the proposal to establish a Francophone Secretariat is worthy of discussion, we are concerned that this process is being moved along without the careful attention and consideration that the issue merits. We will keep you informed in a future bulletin.

Finally, as some of you may have seen in press reports, there was a significant debate in the House of Commons this past Tuesday May 30 related to a motion presented by Liberal Heritage critic Mauril Bélanger, namely:

"That, in view of the ratification by Canada of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the House insist that the government provide direction to trade negotiators to ensure that domestic cultural rights are not undermined in any trade talks, and that its departments and agencies maintain the program policies and regulations in support of Canada's artistic sector and cultural industries, in particular, by maintaining or enhancing: (a) existing Canadian cultural content requirements; (b) current restrictions on foreign ownership in the cultural sector; and (c) financial support for public broadcasting in both official languages."

The motion was eventually passed 155 to 121 with the support of Members of Parliament from all opposition parties facing up the Conservative MPs present who voted against it. The debate lasted for much of Tuesday and certainly contains some intriguing quotes from both the Government and Opposition benches. Here are a few key excerpts from the Government side, for those of you who have neither the time nor the inclination to sift through the Hansard (the number refers to the paragraph number in Hansard for the debate on May 30th). However, seeing that summer weather seems to have arrived in many of the geographic regions of this great country, the CCA suggests that people print out copies of the debate for an engaging, page-turning read on the beach!

"I cannot support the suggestion that by maintaining the Canadian content regulations as is, is the best way to advance the need for this important segment of our population. Existing Canadian cultural content requirements, as written in the motion, would limit the ability to ensure that cultural content requirements can be adjusted to meet the changing realities in many sectors. We are talking not only about broadcasting, but the arts, publishing and new media, as well as many new technologies and techniques not yet even conceived"
Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC, 1245)

"The government will not be bound to fund the CBC at any level, especially in light of the fact we are about to undertake a review of the CBC's mandate. The kind of commitment contained in the motion will not allow the CBC to develop a strategic plan. The government will ensure that the CBC breaks out of the cycle of short term plans that it has been locked into for the past decade by the former Liberal government."

Mr. Jim Abbott (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, CPC, 1050)

"Essentially this motion tells Canadians that Canadian artists cannot compete globally. It says that Canadian talent is not as viable as American or European talent and that without government assistance, arts and culture in Canada could not survive. I simply do not believe that government does everything best and I definitely do not believe that Canadian artists cannot compete globally."
Mr. Gary Schellenberger (Chair of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, CPC, 1300)