44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 11, 2022 02:00PM
- May/11/22 2:09:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on Monday, May 9, the David Suzuki Foundation unveiled the 15 finalists for the 8th Prix Demain le Québec.
Among the finalists are projects that spotlight the culture and heritage of Canada's indigenous peoples as well as initiatives to protect territory and biodiversity. One of the 15 finalists is a project from my riding, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation.
Espace Monarque is a project that gives kids a chance to explore the world of insects and monarch butterflies and deepen their understanding of how plants and animals interact. It focuses on ecology and provides young people with an opportunity to learn and develop their sense of belonging and engagement.
It is a wonderful partnership between the RCM of Argenteuil, Oasis elementary school and the Club Richelieu de Lachute. I applaud the reeve of the RCM of Argenteuil, Scott Pearce, and his team, Éric Pelletier, Renée‑Claude Bergeron and Émilie Jutras, for this initiative, which really puts the RCM of Argenteuil, Quebec and Canada on the map.
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- May/11/22 2:21:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this year, the largest aluminum manufacturing company in the Americas is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Aluminerie Alouette is a source of pride on the North Shore, a jewel for Quebec and the perfect example of how it is possible to be a major, environmentally responsible business on a human scale.
A company such as Alouette represents above all the strength, knowledge and expertise of its employees. More than 900 people on the North Shore work hard for a company that has been involved in the community from the beginning.
Whenever I can, I do not hesitate to promote this company, which has deep roots in our region, and every time I visit I am reminded of just how proud we can be of the expertise and know-how of the North Shore and Quebec, especially when it comes to technology.
I want to wish a happy 30th anniversary to Aluminerie Alouette, its employees, its suppliers and everyone who contributes to its success and, of course, to its very dynamic CEO, Claude Gosselin.
Let us work together to ensure the company can continue to grow and showcase the know-how of the North Shore and Quebec all across the Americas and beyond.
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- May/11/22 2:34:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, anyone can be attached to the prayer and the monarchy. That is totally legitimate. However, given the context, I would like to make a religious reference: whitewashed tombs.
Those parties are afraid of having to say one thing to Quebec and another to Canada. Here and now, they cannot do that. They will have to stand and vote, and the outcome could change the Standing Orders of the House.
Is the Prime Minister for or against maintaining the symbolic power of religion and the monarchy in Canada and Quebec?
It is simple.
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- May/11/22 2:46:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government must be doing something right for Quebeckers if the Bloc Québécois has to try to pick a fight over something as innocuous as a prayer in the House of Commons.
We will continue to focus on helping Quebeckers and all Canadians. We will be there, as we were during the pandemic, with $8 out of every $10 of all assistance sent to Quebec coming directly from the federal government. We will continue to be there to help people with what matters to them, while the Bloc continues to pick a fight.
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- May/11/22 2:47:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so desperate to pick a fight that I, too, am on the verge of tears.
In the meantime, I have a very simple question that should give the Prime Minister pause. If state secularism is so unimportant, why is he spending Canada's resources to challenge a legitimate Quebec law that all Quebeckers agree with?
That must mean it is in fact important. Why not just let Quebec do what it will and let members choose their religion?
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- May/11/22 2:48:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, now we are finally getting to the big debate on secularism that the Bloc would like to import from Quebec to the House of Commons.
The reality is that we will always be there to defend the rights of all Canadians and of different religions because that is what makes our country strong. Our communities, our Parliament and our country will always be resilient because of our diversity.
We will continue to be there to defend fundamental rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for all Canadians.
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- May/11/22 3:00:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the right thing to do is to make home ownership a possibility for aspiring Canadian homeowners.
Right now, in the Quebec City region, property and house prices have gone up 21%. Even with a good job, home ownership is not a given. Young families are completely giving up on their dream of owning a home. Unfortunately, the Liberals are unsympathetic to their plight.
Will this government be remembered as a government of shattered dreams?
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- May/11/22 3:01:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, enough is enough with Roxham Road.
The Premier of Quebec wants the Prime Minister to close this loophole now. If things keep up, 36,000 irregular migrants will enter Quebec via Roxham Road this year. Quebeckers are the ones who have to foot that bill. We already take in 92% of the irregular migrants arriving in Canada.
Quebec simply does not have the capacity to provide services and housing to an extra 36,000 unexpected people every year.
The Prime Minister can unilaterally close Roxham Road. Will he just suspend the safe third country agreement?
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- May/11/22 3:02:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister can unilaterally suspend that agreement. He does not need anyone's permission. He needs to do his job.
He has another job to do, as well. He needs to pick up the tab. Asylum seekers are a federal responsibility. Right now, Quebec is being forced to invest $50 million in apartment buildings for irregular migrants. It is costing Quebeckers $72 million in last-resort assistance alone.
Will the Prime Minister suspend that agreement, shut down Roxham Road and compensate Quebec for costs incurred providing services to people for whom the federal government is responsible?
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- May/11/22 3:07:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers want to know what the government is doing for them. Once again this week, we see that our Bloc colleagues are trying to find fault where there is none by claiming to defend the interests of Quebec.
On this side, there are 35 Liberals from Quebec who are working tirelessly to get things done for Quebec and Quebeckers.
Can the Prime Minister update the House on how this government is supporting Quebeckers?
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- May/11/22 3:08:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to thank the member for Laval—Les Îles for his question and hard work.
Our government is always there for Quebeckers. In Quebec, we recently announced $13.3 million for the PHI Foundation, in Montreal, so it can expand and continue to offer contemporary art experiences, $9.4 million for the construction of an innovation and advanced training centre in Rivière-du-Loup, $9.1 million to build a new arena in Magog, $2.2 million to build the Innofibre research centre in Trois‑Rivières, and many other investments.
We have been there to support the interests of Quebeckers and we will continue to be there for them.
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Madam Speaker, let us remember Bill C‑10 and the work my colleague from Drummond did. I helped him a few times because we were co-critics for arts and culture in the previous Parliament.
Now here we are with Bill C‑11, which covers essentially the same things. The Bloc Québécois has never stopped working with the arts community to make things better.
Here we have a bill that is basically the same and that the community is comfortable with. This is good work that has taken a lot of time and energy, and I think cultural stakeholders in Canada and Quebec are satisfied with it. The Bloc Québécois is very proud of this bill because we were very committed to it and put a lot of energy into it.
I would like to ask the government House leader why he is doing this to us today.
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Madam Speaker, it is clear that it is time to act.
A lot of time has gone into this. The member across the way is absolutely right.
Bill C‑11 is very important for the artistic community throughout Quebec and Canada. Artists and people create a heritage and stories that are essential to our country. It is very important to support people like that.
After the last parliamentary session, after much debate, after much time spent at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, after much time spent in the House of Commons, I think it is time to act. That is what people across Canada want us to do.
That is why we will carry on today in order to get to the next stage, which is study in committee.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to speak to the measure taken to move this forward.
On behalf of all artists in the cultural community in Montreal and Quebec, it is high time that we take action and move forward. The current system is unfair and antiquated. It should have been changed a long time ago.
Why not move ahead quickly to study the bill, improve it and ensure that people on the Web can participate in artistic creation in Quebec and Canada?
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois does not support closure motions. We believe that democracy must take precedence over all else.
However, we must deplore the fact that the official opposition does not recognize that the current Bill C‑11 is much better crafted than the former Bill C‑10 and that it could continue to be improved in committee.
Quebec and Canadian artists have been waiting for decades for something to change. The Internet has changed everything. It seems to me that the time has come to pass this bill.
Does the hon. member not deplore the use of closure? It seems to us that the legislative agenda from now until the end of June is not that heavy and that we would have time to continue the debate.
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Madam Speaker, often, the way it works is that, in order to get access to cultural programs or what have you, users have to ask for it. However, on the Internet, users are highly influenced by what the algorithms decide to show them, and that can be a bit more problematic. If broadcasters are encouraged to present more Canadian content, this will pique consumers' curiosity and interest in the excellent content that is available in Quebec and Canada.
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Madam Speaker, we know that every artist and the entire arts and culture sector in Quebec support the bill. There must be something in it that helps protect francophone culture.
I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by sending my regards to all of my friends and associates from the life I led before and sometimes still go back to: the artists, authors, creators and composers. It is a team and a big family that I still belong to, although to a small extent. I send them my sincere regards.
I will begin my speech with a thought, a quote from one of Quebec's great poets, Raymond Lévesque, a friend of mine whom I adored.
Keep running, good people. Don't get involved. At the end of the race, you will find a trash can and death. Tomorrow you will curse those who got you into trouble, and yet you will have let them get away with it.
Let them get away with it. That is what the two main parties that have been taking turns being in government have done over the past 15 years, when broadcasting was revolutionized and digital broadcasters invaded the broadcasting market.
The cultural sector has therefore seen its main sources of revenue swallowed by the digital world. Although it had anticipated this and looked for possible solutions, it came up against outdated federal legislation. Accordingly, as it is capable of doing, it questioned itself, it adapted and tried as best it could to make a place for itself in this miserly and opportunistic monster of a world that values nothing but its own financial interests, without caring too much about what constitutes it, which is content and artistic, cultural, media, literary and visual creation. In short, the gargantuan digital monster is happily helping itself to the buffet, and it has been doing so for a very long time.
The cultural community is losing not only the income from its content, but also the revenue from the sale of traditional media for that content—cassettes, CDs and videocassettes, which we had in my day. In another life, I wrote songs. My songs went from room to room in people's homes on cassettes and CDs. I sold some CDs.
Everyone found their share of income in these media. To keep it simple, let us think of it as a pie, cut into parts proportional to the investment in the production of the work. Copyright revenues and royalties were distributed, as well. There was also an anticipated income from subsequent distribution on social media for creators, writers and composers.
French-language content quotas on the traditional platforms were not perfect, but we managed to hang on by the skin of our teeth. Any success we had on the radio or on television simply gave us a bit of money to invest in the next project. Unfortunately, since the transition to digital, the whole profitability aspect of the exercise has disappeared. People can no longer afford productions, especially independent productions.
Nothing has been done so far to adapt the legislation to this new digital world. Election promises were made in 2015 and again in 2019. A year later, the Yale report backed the government into a corner by making it clear that delaying the exercise any further would be politically disastrous for the government and noting the frustration and desperation of the tourism industry. As a result, the Liberals finally introduced their bill to amend the Broadcasting Act in November 2020.
Better late than never, I guess. We sat down in parliamentary committee, we consulted Quebec's cultural community, and we found several major shortcomings in this bill, including the lack of protections for francophone content; the lack of discoverability, predictability and enhancement of content; and the absence of any obligation for foreign producers to prioritize Canada's cultural potential or to offer compensation if that proved impossible.
The Bloc Québécois has made the priorities of Quebec's cultural community central to its work here. The creators and broadcasters of all manner of cultural expression were pleased to see their needs reflected, first in the original Bill C‑10 and then in the current Bill C‑11. The community is satisfied and, above all, reassured by our work and our signature collaborative spirit, as we seek to come to find the balance that will make a bill the best it can be.
As Bloc members, that is our job. We did it. Eighteen months and a second attempt at the bill later, we ask only one thing, that the House pass that blessed bill.
Right now, the gigantic digital world is still stuffing itself at the all-you-can-eat content buffet. As the former heritage minister from the previous Parliament said during one of his many appearances on a very popular Sunday TV show, the cultural sector has been losing more than $70 million a month since the legislation failed to pass. It has been 18 months since the bill was introduced in November 2020, so that represents $1.26 billion in losses for the creative industry, which equates to $2.33 million a day or $97,222 an hour.
I am part of this cultural sector. I know this community: It is generous, resilient and passionate. It has an ability to bounce back that is absolutely incredible. It possesses the magic of universality and perseverance, and it is used to working hard. We cannot deprive it of the income it is owed. It is unacceptable to keep drawing things out like this.
If I were to walk among my colleagues in the House and take from each of their pockets the amount of money that the cultural community has lost since November 2020, I swear that no one here would like that. That is what we do every day when we postpone passing this bill. We have been dragging our feet since 2020.
My 10‑minute speech will have cost artists and creators $16,203. What are we doing, then? Should I pass the hat?
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Madam Speaker, in the House, we all share the idea that we want to make sure Canadian content is protected in this country. We want to make sure that Canada's linguistic duality is supported. We want to make sure that the big Internet companies pay their fair share and that they are regulated properly.
The member must have heard from constituents who are concerned that the attempt to regulate the Internet may negatively impact people's ability to freely access the Internet and post what they want. I am curious about what the feeling in Quebec is and whether or not her constituents are expressing that concern.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his passionate speech.
I just want clarify that, in 1991, people in Quebec were listening to L'amour existe encore by Céline Dion.
I also want to remind the member that, at the time, Céline Dion was enjoying great success, but there were also people like Caroline Desbiens who, even though she may not have been a superstar, was also succeeding, and that the CRTC made it possible to manage all those fine people.
I have a question for my colleague. Why are our Conservative neighbours questioning whether the CRTC will be able to do its job when the legislation comes into force when the CRTC has always been able to do its job?
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