Canadian Heritage committee  That's a great question, and thank you very much for your kind words. It's dependent on the ownership structure. When Bell cut loose 4,800 employees three weeks ago, a senior vice-president mentioned that the radio model was broken. I said to a friend that I dearly wish that I could sit down with some people who, as recently as two months ago, were my employers and have done very well by intensely local radio, and ask what they think of Bell's model.

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't know, but I do know what it looks like today and I see loyalty, trust and engagement with audiences being lower than they've ever been. That started, I would argue, with the media doing things differently, but it's certainly lost at least 10 points in the latest Angus Reid survey with the perception that the media are in on something that the government is doing.

Canadian Heritage committee  To amplify only on that point, I had made a note: The public supports, patronizes and is loyal to media that are relevant to them, that are aligned with their view, not of issues, but of the way we order our society, and that gives them value. Once the media get back to that, we don't need meetings on the crisis in the media, but we have to create an environment where that happens and the public matters.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Coteau. I won't speak for Mr. Jolly, but I'm not saying there's no room for government anywhere. You identified tax policy, which can be a much finer, more surgical approach, particularly for modelling what we want delivery to look like. Is it philanthropic? Is it non-profit?

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Gourde. I was in the midst of saying that I am an unrequited fan of Tara Henley and that I have followed her work in the last two or three years. What you hear from Tara, in many respects, moves us to where I think we're heading. At the risk of sounding alarmist and apocalyptic, I'll say that we may well be in a position here that buggy whip makers and farriers were in when Henry Ford rolled the first Model Ts off the assembly line.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thanks, Mrs. Thomas. Yes, I was born and raised a radio journalist as a kid in high school, then in university, then as an assistant news director and news reader, writer and beat reporter. Then I was a talk show host, then a member of Parliament, then a lawyer and then was back for 25 years as a radio talk show host in Saskatchewan.

Canadian Heritage committee  Madam Chair, committee members, thank you so much for the opportunity to present a few thoughts. I think my remarks time to five minutes and 15 seconds, so I'll try to get them succinctly delivered. Gosh, time has flown. I chaired the predecessor to this committee in 1988, the Standing Committee on Communications and Culture.