Modernizing cultural policy in Ottawa -- make it digital!

Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore was in his element this morning, addressing delegates to the NextMedia conference in Toronto and re-iterating the themes we’ve now heard a few times in the past month. Clearly happy to be with a ‘forward looking’ audience ‘who gets it’, Minister Moore pledged to continue modernizing the legislation, regulations and investments the Government of Canada is making in the creative economy, one three times the size of the insurance industry in Canada, and twice the size of either forestry or agriculture, according to him.

Stating that we ‘can’t let the forces of negativity prevail’, that is those ‘concerned about the status quo’, Minister Moore reinforced his point that government must adapt to the changing times to support the creative sector, so creators can work on multiple platforms. This is to provide consumers with the opportunity to choose how they get their content.

The Minister stated that the old way of developing cultural policy in silos, like television, radio, broadband etc, is now irrelevant. In his view, too many people are developing public policy ‘who don’t get it’. 'It’s all the same thing' now, he suggested. He talked about the various Funds in place now at the Department of Canadian Heritage, pointing to the changes the government is making to ensure the digital platform is now considered in all policy decisions. The federal government is making arts and culture investments so we can ‘compete to win’.

Minister Moore concluded by calling on the delegates at NextMedia, most of whom he concluded were relatively young, to ‘stay engaged; The average age of an MP is 57 he said; senior public servants are in that same age range. These people don’t get it he concluded, suggesting that many are digitally illiterate. It’s up to the likes of people at NextMedia to be ‘agents of change’ in his view.