The new Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, would like Bill C-11 on broadcasting to include a mandatory and official consultation mechanism for Quebec. He asked his federal counterpart Pablo Rodriguez in a letter sent in early February. And he repeated it to all the microphones during a media tour last week.
It’s a good idea that comes a little late. Bill C-11 is in the process of being passed. The minister’s intervention is not in vain, however. Quebec’s specificity must indeed be recognized in the implementation of this law.
That said, Minister Mathieu Lacombe must specify what he wants to obtain exactly. For now, it remains vague. Will he listen to the experts who have spoken on this subject in recent months, and who are calling for greater Quebec influence within the next version of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ?
Law professor Pierre Trudel, among others, pleaded for new rules that would ensure a better place for French-speaking creators as well as those from diversity and First Nations. He also wanted the CRTC to be more sensitive to French-language content. Same story from Alain Saulnier, former head of information at Radio-Canada and author of the essay The Digital Barbarians – Resisting the GAFAM Invasionwho would welcome Quebec appointments to the CRTC being approved by the Quebec government.
Minister Mathieu Lacombe will need all the allies he meets on his way to prevent Quebec culture from being completely engulfed in the digital ocean. Faced with giants, unity is strength.
Yet another confrontation with Ottawa would not help Quebec in this file where it is better to bet on federal-provincial cooperation. Luckily, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, knows Quebec and he is listening. Let’s take this opportunity to assert our point of view and obtain some guarantees.
But it’s not just in Ottawa that Minister Mathieu Lacombe has to work hard. He has his work cut out in his own government. The current budget allocated to culture – $257 million over five years – is insufficient for the importance of the role that this ministry must play.
If Quebec wants to counterbalance the web giants, if the province wants to produce original content and better protect its distinct and, let’s face it, fragile culture, it needs investments to match its ambitions.
We must also review our cultural policy from top to bottom, which must be adapted to the digital reality. Good news: Minister Lacombe intends to review the role and operation of SODEC, the organization that coordinates financial assistance to Quebec cultural businesses. It’s a great starting point.
On a media tour, Minister Mathieu Lacombe insisted a lot on the discoverability of French-speaking Quebec content, i.e. the ease with which one can access content produced here on major digital platforms such as Netflix and Spotify, to name only these two.
Quebec could very well take inspiration from the work of the European Union, which requires a quota of 30% of its productions on all platforms. It is an avenue to explore.
But Mathieu Lacombe has an even more fundamental job to do. For subscribers to these platforms to consume Quebec content, they still have to want it.
It is the role of the Minister of Culture to implement measures that stimulate Quebec creativity and make it accessible to as many people as possible. Here too, the task is colossal.
We know that young people are abandoning Quebec culture in French. And we are not just talking about young allophones and anglophones, who are too often singled out. Young native Francophones are also seduced by Anglophone culture.
We must try to turn the tide and get young people more interested in local creations.
To do this, Minister Mathieu Lacombe would do well to work more closely with his Education counterpart. Tastes are formed at the age when school attendance is compulsory. This is a place where we must reinvest as a priority to train the audiences of tomorrow.
Mathieu Lacombe gives the impression of being an ambitious minister. Let’s hope he takes advantage of his time in Culture to make a real difference.