Joly’s South Korea trip raises questions
Better to address more pressing issues closer to home, like Netflix policy
On her way to China for a cultural trade meeting, federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly made a quick pit stop in South Korea last week to spend a few days learning about the Korean cultural export strategy, including K-Pop music.
It’s a decision she may come to regret to when she returns home to Quebec.
The Journal de Montreal reported last week that Joly went ahead with this trip against the advice of her officials. A government document dated Dec. 14, 2017 reads: “It is recommended that any decision on a bilateral visit be postponed until a more comprehensive analysis of the Korean market and potential business opportunities for Canadian industries can be completed.”
Her deputy minister, however, told TVA that in fact the concerns expressed in the memo were no longer in play in April and that officials supported the trip.
As a result of reaction largely on the part of the francophone media, Joly is now on the defensive and trying to justify a trip that her critics argue was poorly organized, wasteful and indicative of what appears to be the federal Liberal government’s sense of entitlement.
Couldn’t the handful of meetings she had in Seoul have been held over Skype or teleconference?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has defended Joly’s trip. This may not help her case, given that this government has not been shy to use taxpayer dollars for international travel that seems to yield little for Canadians.
In December, Trudeau, accompanied by a handful of cabinet members and bureaucrats, flew to China on a high level state visit but left without any commitments to formally launch free trade talks.
His more recent trip to India was a bigger diplomatic disaster, yielding little more than a series of cringeworthy photo-ops of him and his family dressed in multiple changes of Indian clothing, and culminating in Jaspal Atwal, a man convicted of the 1986 attempted murder of an Indian politician visiting Vancouver Island, being invited to two events.
Joly is already on thin ice in her home province. The heritage minister
— who among other things is responsible for overseeing Canada’s official languages portfolio — was pilloried in Quebec media and political circles last year, perhaps most notably on the popular show Tout le monde en parle for her government’s deal with Netflix. Netflix pledged to spend $500 million to set up a Canadian office and fund Canadian content, but made no commitment to invest in French-language content.
Adding to the controversy, the government has rebuffed calls to make Netflix and similar online businesses subject to federal sales tax.
Joly was accused of favouring the California-based company over our own homegrown artists and cultural producers.
The Quebec government got the memo, at least: As of 2019, the province will require Netflix to start collecting and paying provincial sales tax.
I’m not suggesting that Canada shouldn’t learn from South Korea. After all, the South Korean government has invested over two decades of planning and co-operation between private industry and the government, and has poured millions of dollars into forming a Ministry of Culture with a specific department devoted to K-Pop and making South Korea the largest exporter of popular culture.
In addition to the slick choreography and catchy ear worms, K-Pop songs tend to feature a chorus or at least a line or two in English.
This is one of the key strategies behind K-Pop’s success in penetrating the global market, though I can only imagine how this might play out here in Quebec.
In any case, Quebecers would rather Joly spend more time addressing the Netflix issue. And when it comes to creating opportunities for the cultural sector, it’s not clear what Canadians as a whole should expect in terms of return on investment for Joly’s South Korean trip — and French-speaking Canadians, including Quebecers, even less so.