Beauchamp wins culture and communications portfolio in Quebec

Quebec multimedia leaders are holding their breath waiting for some direction from the new Liberal Party government in the province regarding public aid to the sector. On April 29, new premier Jean Charest named Line Beauchamp as minister of Culture and Communications, but it will likely be months before Beauchamp puts her stamp on the department and the province’s industry knows whether the government will keep to former premier Bernard Landry’s roadmap or chart a new course. On April 14, the province’s Liberal party easily toppled the incumbent Parti Québécois (PQ) with a majority of 76 seats to the PQ’s 45. The Action Démocratique party won just 4 seats. Daniel Boismenu, a spokesperson for the Alliance numériQC, acknowledges that Landry has been a booster of interactive digital media since he served as finance minister prior to winning the party leadership, and has been an asset to the sector. Boismenu reserves judgement on the new premier and minister. “Landry was the first fan of the multimedia industry here in Quebec. I can’t say the same – well, I don’t know the same for Charest and his team,” Boismenu tells Canadian NEW MEDIA. “For the moment, the only thing we know is that they are probably less interventionist in the economy than the Parti Québécois. But we don’t know anything else for the moment. I know that in their program they are very concerned about the implementation of e-government. That could be interesting for the industry. We can play an important role in the implementation of e-government.” While many observers may have been hard-pressed to differentiate the policies of the PQ and the Liberals, with the obvious schism on federalism, Boismenu notes that the Liberals seem to be more strongly committed to debt reduction – a point that may implicitly work against some of the objectives of the Alliance. Charest will have a high bar to jump to meet the same level of support as his predecessor for interactive digital media in the province. Landry personally championed several high-profile measures such as generous tax credits, a multimedia and an ecommerce cluster in Montreal, as well as a high level of support for the industry association that’s the envy of the rest of the country. While the 2003 PQ budget didn’t provide money for recommended e-learning programs being pushed by the Alliance (CNM, April 19/02), it did push ahead with a broad review of support measures in Quebec to ensure they work as efficiently as possible. But that support did not have money attached, and it remains to be seen how the new minister of culture and communications proceeds. Beauchamp, who represents the new Montreal-area riding of Bourassa-Sauvé, was first elected in 1999, and has served as Opposition critic for culture and communications since then. She has also served for almost as long on the Committee on Culture. Few clues about her attitude toward digital media can be gleaned from the Hansard record of her contributions to the National Assembly in the intervening time. She graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1985 with a Bachelor’s degree with a major in psychology, and went on to become director of Info-croissance, a consumer protection association, from 1987-1991. She then served as managing director of CIBL-FM from 1991-1993, before joining Pro-Est, a society to promote social and economic joint action in Montreal’s east end as general manager from 1993-1998. In the meantime, it will likely be about a year before the new government can put its stamp on policies aimed at the sector as it undergoes a learning curve and puts senior political staff in the top jobs at the various ministries, Boismenu says. The Cabinet appointment was suspenseful until the end, with Beauchamp considered one of the frontrunners along with Michelle Courchesne, a former deputy minister in the department of culture and communications who was appointed minister for citizen relations and immigration.

Beauchamp wins culture and communications portfolio in Quebec

Broadcast | May 1, 2003

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