HOC February 16, 2022

2022-02-16

Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) - Bill C-11 (Broadcasting)

[^S-161] 18:14 , Question

Madam Speaker, I will begin by thanking my hon. colleague, who has done absolutely tremendous work in this area. I could not agree more with him that the arts community has been gutted, particularly now that we are in a pandemic. That is one of the reasons I put forward a bill for a guaranteed livable basic income, something that would be a game-changer for artists.

My hon. colleague spoke about how the NDP has fought to ensure that the orders and conditions required by the CRTC from the web giants are transparent, public and do not contain loopholes that web giants can use to circumvent their obligations to fund Canadian cultural content and make it discoverable. Could my hon. colleague expand on that and why this is critically important?

Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie)

[^S-161] 2022-02-16 18:15 , Response

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I know that there is a very active and vibrant artistic community in her riding that has been weakened by the laissez-faire approach of successive federal governments and by the current crisis, which is still ongoing.

I think she made an excellent point. As a progressive opposition party, we must be very vigilant about the powers given to the CRTC.

I spoke a bit about that earlier. We need to be very serious and firm about information, data transparency, negotiations with web giants and the obligations that will be imposed. In my past life, I often saw the CRTC being somewhat lax, weak and complacent with large corporations.

If the directives and guidelines are unclear, we cannot automatically assume that the CRTC will do the right thing.