Canadian Heritage committee  As you know, Radio-Canada was forced to make that choice because it lacked funding. That's one of the reasons Radio-Canada has often cited.

Canadian Heritage committee  In fact, I understood that the Local Programming Improvement Fund essentially concerns news, local information programs. But we have to go further. Local culture doesn't consist solely of general news in a municipality, a riding; it also includes the life of the riding, the socio-cultural component; it's everything that goes on there.

Canadian Heritage committee  The problem is that all the artists in Canada's regions doing anything other than popular music may have trouble making themselves known. That will impoverish culture in the regions and the diversity of voices. Canadians must have a good overview of Canadian culture, not just a certain mass culture, which moreover is very good.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would add that the other danger concerns the diversity of voices. Take, for example, Radio-Canada, which produces some 2,500 musical performances a year. I'm talking about Radio-Canada alone; I'm not including the CBC. Radio-Canada doesn't just produce artists in whom it has a financial interest.

Canadian Heritage committee  Many stakeholders have emphasized this fact because there is a splitting of revenue sources and of the number of stations, etc. In fact, we don't need to go back over this question. Ms. Pradier emphasized a very important problem that we have mainly seen in Quebec—it concerns Quebecor—but that could well occur elsewhere.

Canadian Heritage committee  We've also raised the question as to whether Radio-Canada should have access to the fund. I think it's entirely contrary to Canadian policy that Radio-Canada doesn't have access to that fund. It's part of Radio-Canada's mandate to produce diversified local content that reflects the regions.

Canadian Heritage committee  Distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, thank you for inviting the Quebec Musicians’ Guild to appear before you today. My name is Luc Fortin. I am a professional musician and have been the President of the Guild’s Board of Directors since March 2006.