Speaking Notes for the Honourable Mélanie Joly Minister of Canadian Heritage

Occasion: Speech to the Banff World Media Festival (Check against delivery)
Banff, Alberta
June 10, 2018, 4:30 pm

Introduction

Distinguished guests, Mesdames et Messieurs. I am honoured to speak to you today on Treaty 7 territory and the traditional territory of the Niitsitapi, Stoney-Nakoda and Tsuut'ina Peoples.

Welcome everyone, to this edition of the Banff World Media Festival.

Thank you to the organizers and volunteers for the countless hours you’ve spent on putting this conference together. You’ve outdone yourselves once again with an impressive festival program.

This is my third time at Banff. I love coming here because we celebrate the screen industry and it’s a place where major deals are made.

Two years ago—my first time at Banff—we were just getting to know each other.

I had set out to rebuild the creative sector after 10 years of cuts under the Harper government.

Our government wanted to tackle important issues that had been left unaddressed.

You might remember some of the numbers in my first speech at Banff. I talked about the contribution of the creative industries to our economy—$54 billion per year—and the 630,000 people they employ.

I talked about our government’s commitment to doubling the budget for Canada Council for the Arts to $360 million per year, which we’ve delivered on.

I also spoke of investing $675 million into CBC/Radio-Canada and the $35 million we first announced to get Canada back in the business of helping our creative industries succeed overseas.

My second time here, this time last year, we’d completed our #DigiCanCon consultations. More than 30,000 people participated in that conversation about the future of our sector.

I also had the privilege of announcing the launch of the Indigenous Screen Office. Jesse Wente has now been appointed to direct the office, and work has begun.

Since then, in September, I announced Creative Canada, our government’s vision for growing our creative industries.

You know, as I do, that some parts of Creative Canada were received with greater enthusiasm than others.

But I believe that we are on the right track. As I said then, our vision outlined considerable work ahead. Its impact will grow as we complete this work.

Today, I want to talk about that impact. About our very busy two years of work.

I want to take a closer look, from high up in these beautiful Rocky Mountains, at what we’ve accomplished.

Improving a system that works better for creators, producers, distributors and broadcasters

When I launched Creative Canada, I made it my priority to invest in Canadian artists, producers and cultural entrepreneurs.

We have made good on that promise.

Since 2016, we’ve invested $3.2 billion of new money in arts and culture. The biggest reinvestment in 30 years.

We are still the only G7 country reinvesting this much.

We also heard from you about the impact of cord-cutting and lower profitability of cable providers on the Canada Media Fund (CMF).

In Creative Canada, we committed to stabilizing the funding in the CMF.

And we have done that.

In February, the federal budget set aside $172 million new dollars for the CMF to support good jobs for writers, producers, directors, actors and crews.

That’s on top of the $134 million the Government provides to the CMF every year.

That stability means that producers and broadcasters will be able to count on the CMF to continue to support great Canadian shows.

It also means that the CMF will be able to keep innovating and adapting to serve the industry.

We’ve also been working with the CMF on improvements that will make a real difference for the industry.

First, we’ve expanded funding eligibility to include programming for the online platforms of Canadian licensed broadcasters and broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), such as CraveTV, Club Illico, TouTV or cbc.ca.

The second change is that we’ve given the CMF more flexibility to support sector development activities that could, for example, offer training and career development opportunities.

The third change, which we identified in Creative Canada, is an increased focus on development and pre-development.

We heard everywhere we went in the country that we need to put more money into the pre-development and development phase so that creative teams have the time and resources to develop their scripts and pitches.

I don’t need to tell anyone in this room that financing a project is like putting together the pieces of a complicated puzzle.

We know that, for you to do what you do best, our pieces of the puzzle need to work better.

I heard in our #DigiCanCon consultations that your projects—including those shown exclusively online—need to be certified for tax credits more quickly from the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification (CAVCO).

We promised to support online projects and shorten wait times. That’s exactly what we have done.

Since then, CAVCO has cut wait times in half.

I have heard from many of you that this has made a big difference in getting your projects financed.

I also heard that CAVCO needed to recognize the magazine and television show formats that are very popular with the public. That’s what we have done.

We have appointed a new Chair and two new Vice-Chairs to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Last August, we sent back the group-based licensing decision made by the CRTC. We did this because we believe we need a strong market for our content at home, in French and in English.

We also heard that, for many musicians, authors, developers and other creators, copyright protection is key to earning a living.

And that the Copyright Board of Canada must work much faster to set royalty rates.

That’s why we’ve fast-tracked modernizing the Board: for creators to get paid faster and at appropriate rates.

We’re working hard to improve our system.

A stabilized CMF, a streamlined CAVCO, a strong CRTC and a more efficient Copyright Board will all go toward supporting you and growing our industry.

Opening new markets, attracting new investment, and creating new job opportunities

As a country with a relatively small population, we all see the importance of opening new markets and reaching audiences abroad.

We also know that, more than ever, there is a global hunt for stories. We can seize a bigger piece of the international pie.

In fact, 2016-2017 was our biggest year ever with more than $8 billion in total film and television production. $3 billion of that was in Canadian films and television.

We know the opportunities are there.

It’s how we’ve become the 3^rd largest exporter of music and 3^rd largest exporter of video games.

Or why Vancouver is recognized as the biggest hub for visual effects and animation on the planet.

Or why Jean-Marc Vallée, Xavier Dolan and Denis Villeneuve are recognized internationally for their work.

Our government is committed to help you reach new markets.

We have signed co-production agreements with Ireland, China, New Zealand, Jordan, Luxembourg and Belgium.

We are also the first non-European member of Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s coproduction fund.

We are currently in talks with France and South Korea for new co-production agreements.

With these agreements, we want to expand our markets, particularly for Francophone content.

In addition, we announced that we would build on this momentum by investing $125 million to support Canada’s first Creative Export Strategy.

In this strategy, we have a plan to promote our creative industries—to be present where the relationships are being built, the deals are happening, and the jobs are created.

That’s why we have started supporting a strong Canadian presence in major international events and tradeshows.

They include Mexico’s MICA film festival this past week, where, as the guest of honour, we showcased Canada’s filmmaking talent and film sector expertise.

We also want to have strong trade fairs here in Canada to showcase our work and bring buyers here.

The Banff World Media Festival is a great example.

We have hired trade commissioners to help expand our presence in important global markets.

We now have boots on the ground with the right expertise in many more key cities, including Paris, Mexico, London, Beijing and Los Angeles.

These people on the ground are there to help you make the connections you need to make deals.

Government-to-government relationships are also vital to opening doors in some countries. This is why we Ied Canada’s first creative industries trade mission to China in April.

We took a delegation of 60 companies to Shanghai and Beijing.

For the first time ever, we facilitated close to 300 meetings between Chinese companies and our delegation. This included companies in film and TV production, music, museums, publishing, gaming and visual effects.

Many of you were there.

We signed 23 business deals worth over $125 million.

The impact of this trade mission continues.

I’m delighted to have witnessed just this afternoon another success story from our trade mission: A new Canada-China documentary series, “Silk Road to Northern Lights” that will broadcast in both countries next year. Congratulations to Ira Levy and the creative team behind this project.

Growing our exports and attracting investment benefits all Canadians, whether it’s attracting one of South Korea’s top television dramas—called “Goblin”—to film in Québec City, or partnering to animate “La guerre de tuques” and “The Breadwinner”—which received an Oscar nod for Best Animated Feature.

We know that we have a wealth of talent here.

We also know that, as a government, we can help you export it.

That’s what we’re doing.

I will have more to say about how we’ll invest the $125 million in our Export Strategy in the next few weeks.

Creating harassment-free work environments

A strong industry is also an inclusive industry, where everyone, regardless of gender, race or orientation, is safe and can give their very best.

Over the last year, the #MeToo movement enabled thousands to speak up about acts of sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.

As the #AfterMeToo movement and members of our industry put it, we need a change of culture.

Every one of us here in this room has the responsibility to stand up against harassment and put a stop to it.

We need education, rights promotion and resources.

Industry members at every level of our workforce need to have the resources to protect themselves and build a respectful, harassment-free workplace.

Across the industry, people have come together to act quickly. Our guilds, unions, agencies, associations, broadcasters, festivals, theatres and creative spaces have developed a Code of Conduct to prevent and respond to harassment and discrimination.

As a feminist government, we are working side by side with you.

Canadian Heritage provides a little over $1.3 billion in grants and contributions each year. That’s our main tool to help make sure that things change.

We have reviewed the way we fund organizations.

From now on, organizations will only get funding if they commit to providing a workplace that is free from discrimination and harassment.

We’re also working with the Canada Council for the Arts to provide tools and training to build and maintain respectful workplaces.

This will benefit people in over 1,750 arts organizations across Canada.

We must also strike a better balance in our leadership by championing women and underrepresented voices in our industry.

In Creative Canada, we talked about the need for gender parity in our creative industries.

We also talked about increasing support to Indigenous creators and official-language minority communities so they can tell their stories.

We need to reflect diversity in the leadership of our national cultural institutions.

Through our new open and merit-based appointments process, we have made 110 appointments across 17 agencies to do just that.

Speaking of talented leaders, CBC/Radio-Canada’s new CEO and president, Catherine Tait is the first woman and first producer to head CBC/Radio-Canada.

I have every confidence that she will take CBC/Radio-Canada to new heights.

I am also pleased with the strides our agencies have made.

Telefilm, CBC, the National Film Board (NFB) and the CMF are all taking concrete action to support more women in key creative positions and to achieve gender parity.

I’m proud of this work.

And I’m very proud of the members of our community who have been strong advocates driving these changes.

Modernizing a broadcasting system for the digital world

The #MeToo movement is not the only wind of change in our creative industries.

Technology has become a powerful, relentless disrupter.

It was clear from the beginning of our government’s mandate that we needed to immediately reinvest in arts and culture after a decade of neglect.

We also needed to begin the difficult process of modernizing our system at its roots.

We reinvested in CBC/Radio-Canada to ensure that they have stable funding to become more local, more digital and more innovative for a younger generation.

We attracted a half a billion dollar commitment from Netflix, the first of its kind in the world.

This investment is supporting Canadian production in both official languages and the discoverability of Canadian programming on their platform.

It broke new ground.

We’ve also learned from it.

We know we need more fundamental change.

Today, 70% of Internet traffic in Canada is audio and video streaming.

Content is driving the growth of the Internet, and the reality is that much of this is American content, and in English.

In Canada, where we also value the cultures of Francophones, Indigenous Peoples and many diverse communities, we have to protect and support our culture.

Today’s broadcasting system is more open, with a host of new digital players reaching Canadian screens directly.

They are operating outside the cultural policies and safeguards we’ve had in place for more than 70 years.

We continue to champion the Internet as a progressive force—as an open and inclusive space, respectful of human rights and freedom of expression.

In this digital age, our government stands firmly by the principle of net neutrality.

But equally, we strongly support the protection and promotion of Canadian culture at home and around the world.

Digital platforms benefit greatly from our creative industries. They must do their part.

They must be more transparent about their business models and the impact of their algorithms.

They must be ready to explain how they provide online content to Canadians.

They must support creation, discoverability and access to diverse content from Canada, including local content and local news.

In Creative Canada, we directed the CRTC to report on the future of content distribution in the digital era.

Their report, released two weeks ago, calls for a new approach.

The CRTC Chair, Ian Scott, is here with us today. I would like thank him and his team for their report.

Four days after the CRTC report was released, we took a major step towards modernizing our laws.

On Tuesday, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and I launched the first-ever joint review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts.

We appointed a panel of seven experts to give us specific guidance on legislative reforms.

They will provide a first report in the first half of 2019 and final recommendations by January 2020.

Janet Yale will chair of this panel. She brings 30 years of experience in the industry and her stellar executive skills to this task.

Let me highlight two of her colleagues: Monique Simard, the former CEO of la Société de développement des entreprises (SODEC) in Quebec, is a key member of this panel. She will bring a strong voice for the industry to the table. And Peter Grant, from Toronto, is the author of the Broadcasting Act handbook.

We are tackling an issue that is complex and we know what’s at stake: a $67-billion dollar industry and thousands of jobs.

Many countries have talked about reforming their broadcasting systems, but none of them have launched reviews like ours.

Why? Because we are not only talking about broadcasting and telecommunication, we are talking about the future of Canadian content on the Internet.

We have to do this right.

And we have to do it together.

We have the CRTC report as a starting point.

The message is clear: All players who benefit from the system must contribute to it. There can be no free ride.

This is the foundation of the Broadcasting Act.

We believed in that 30 years ago. We believe in that today.

The system is larger with new elements, but everyone has a part to play.

We want the panel to give us their best advice on how to define the roles and responsibilities of all the players in a way that will be fair, forward-looking and effective.

We want to build a system that is sustainable, flexible and that serves all Canadians, in both English and French.
We want to protect our Canadian independent producers and strengthen Canadian platforms.

We want strong Canadian companies and a strong, independent CBC/Radio-Canada and CRTC.

And we want to find long-term funding solutions that will continue to support content creation and Canadian film and television production, without increasing the cost of services to Canadians.

Pierre Juneau, the father of Canadian content rules, was able to strike the right balance between players in the 1960s.

The team we have put in place will seek to strike a balance that is based on two realities coinciding: the existing broadcasting system and the future of that system on the Internet.

The panel will need your input on this review to make sure we get this right.

The responsibility to ensure that there is a diversity of content and voices in the digital space isn’t just a Canadian conversation. It’s also one I committed to driving internationally.

Our action is definitely gaining traction.

Following the same idea, in the presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and I signed a declaration with Madame Françoise Nyssen, the Minister of Culture of France, to establish what the responsibility for the protection of cultural diversity should look like in the digital era.

This declaration includes principles such as support for local and national content to be available and promoted on digital platforms.

Artists must also be treated fairly for their work.

The declaration also reaffirmed our commitment toward promoting Francophone content on the Internet.

We will continue working with UNESCO, the G7, the World Economic Forum and Silicon Valley to build a collective approach with countries that share our priorities.

Equally, we will continue to defend a strong cultural exemption as we modernize and negotiate free-trade agreements.

We fought to preserve cultural sovereignty online in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and we continue to do so in a modernized North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

We are also protecting our cultural industries in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union.

Together, we are working through a period of significant change in both Canada and the rest of the world.

This work is essential in securing our sector for the decades to come.

We will continue to fight for cultural exemptions in free-trade agreements, just as we have done with the CPTPP and CETA.

Conclusion

I know there is more work to be done.

The path is longer at times than we’d like.

But in the face of change and disruption, we must never give up.

Let’s find solutions.

Coming to Banff helps us take stock of all the important work we have accomplished together.

It has been a busy two-and-a-half years since we formed a government that believes in the strength and importance of the arts in Canada.

When I’m working with colleagues around the Cabinet table, I remind them that the growth in our film and television industries helped create 171,000 full-time jobs and contributed $12 billion to the country’s GDP in 2017.

Each and every one of you in this room is part of that success.

Those numbers tell a good story.

It’s an important one to celebrate.

We still have lots to do. Let’s work together.

Merci. Thank you.