Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely, sir.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. First, let me tell you how our salaries are set and how our incentive pay is set. We have a board of directors populated by outsiders who have expertise in these matters. We have an HR committee that reviews this every year. Our salaries are basically benchmarked with those of consultants.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely, sir.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have 553 very capable executives, managers, who are incentivized in a very normal and reasonable way. We unfortunately had to cut 800 jobs. We asked our senior executives to contribute to the budget next year and to put dollars back. I think this was a very strong commitment on the part of our management team.

Canadian Heritage committee  No.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can answer the question.

Canadian Heritage committee  The plan was to use this instead of selling some of our assets and influencing and reducing our resources for the coming years. When you start selling cash flows that are owed to you in the years to come and you accelerate them in one year, obviously you will create cash in 2009, but these cashflows will not be available to you in the years to come, and you'll have to make some adjustments at that particular time.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, Mr. Angus, if the question is, Lacroix, what kind of model would you present if you took advertising revenues out of the CBC, how many dollars would you need, the answer is pretty simple in terms of what amount of commercial revenues we need to balance our budget. The number is anywhere between $300 million and $325 million in 2009-10 in our budget.

Canadian Heritage committee  Hockey Night in Canada is most probably, in terms of CBC television, the most important brand. It also carries most of the revenues, the important part of our revenues, and it connects Canadians. Right now across the country, even if the Maple Leafs are not playing and the Canadiens just got eliminated, there are people in Vancouver and Calgary who are pretty excited about being able to tune into CBC/Radio-Canada and watch hockey.

Canadian Heritage committee  Ms. Lavallée, I am now working with Minister Moore and providing him with a detailed account of CBC/Radio-Canada's position in 2009, whether with regard to the funding models or the importance of our mandate. I always come back to the idea of a memorandum of understanding in order to engage the government in a reflection on the services that CBC/Radio-Canada should be offering to all Canadians.

Canadian Heritage committee  Ms. Lavallée, I had no discussion with the government on the level of funding, whether required or not, as part of my hiring process, which was conducted in a very rigorous way by an executive search firm. As I have already told this committee, I never discussed the details of the position or my mandate with the government.

Canadian Heritage committee  In all our work with the government and the Canadian public, we try to demonstrate that the national public broadcaster is a leading institution and that it must be funded like all other national public broadcasters. In fact, our presentation contains a table showing that in the 18 largest European countries, or rather the 18 Western countries—

Canadian Heritage committee  That is right, thank you. We received $34 per capita in funding, which ranks us 15th out of those 18 countries. It is especially in that regard that we are trying to—

Canadian Heritage committee  It's very difficult for me to answer that question precisely, madam, because with the measures that we have taken and have put in place, this was about the overall impact on CBC/Radio-Canada, not particular jobs. What we tried to do with the bridge financing concept was reduce the number of jobs lost.

Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of constant dollars.