Beauchamp bullish on digital content, promises Quebec policy for aid in 2004

Quebec’s new minister of culture and communications has encouraging words for the digital content industry in that province, though word on specific aid measures will have to wait until next year when the government develops a comprehensive strategy for the sector. In an exclusive interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Line Beauchamp says the newly elected Liberal government recognizes that digital content is often cultural content but that it’s premature to say how the government can help boost the industry. Beauchamp says measures put in place by the previous government - and recently put on the chopping block by the current regime - were purely industrial in nature. She says that working with her colleagues responsible for education and economic development, the Liberals are developing a policy with respect to new media along the lines of one recently released for the audio-visual and film industries (CNM, March 21/03). She is concerned that multimedia initiatives were cut by 25% while cultural measures were only cut by 12.5% in recent cutbacks, but says it’s encouraging that money is still available while the government undertakes its policy development (CNM, June 25/03). "It’s a fact that the measures from the previous government to help the digital content industry were industrial measures. They weren’t for content. Those measures didn’t correspond to what the industry needed," she tells CNM. "The situation’s absurd - I recognize that." She says the sector will better benefit from targeted measures such as greater use of multimedia products in sectors such as government online and in education. She notes the Quebec government has set a goal of becoming highly interactive within the next few years, partly in response to industry, which has called on the new regime to move more quickly on this front than the defeated Parti Québécois did. Beauchamp says that more specific policies on that front will be forthcoming in the next few months. Beauchamp also acknowledges that a longstanding request by the Alliance numériQC for greater use of homegrown interactive products in schools is on the government’s radar (CNM, April 19/02). But, she notes, that conversation has only begun within the new government and will take time to gel. While recognizing digital content is often cultural in nature, the government also sees an important role for multimedia in furthering French language goals. She says, for example, that the department for French language issues is currently working with video game developers and their Canadian associations to see how they might help the province further its language goals. "Video games are a form of content," Beauchamp says. "Video game companies include scriptwriters, artists. It’s very similar to comic strip makers or theatre…It’s a content industry that employs creators." She also notes that video games can often be educational. Beauchamp’s view of the interactive content industry as a cultural one is also underlined by another initiative she discusses - a review of the province’s status-of-the-artist legislation. "We’re doing a review of that law in the next months and one of the questions is the recognition in the law of creators from the multimedia sector and to better define that," she says. Beauchamp says the government wants to take a broader view than the previous government did in dealing with aid measures for the sector, including how to help companies develop, commercialize and export products. While recognizing a role for the federal government in assisting the sector, the Quebec government has a unique job ahead to promote French-language content and to help bring those products to outside markets. She says a comprehensive strategy is needed that goes beyond industrial measures partly because of the short life span for digital products - something she says is akin to challenges faced in the world of fashion. She says a policy should be developed sometime during 2004.

Beauchamp bullish on digital content, promises Quebec policy for aid in 2004

News | 11/07/2003 5:00 am EST

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