Official Languages committee  I'm going to give you some very concrete examples. A number of our community radio stations are located in community centres or schools. For example, a new radio station has just opened in Saint-Jean. The station is located in the school. The studios are on the inside, an antenna on the outside.

Official Languages committee  If you want to put a percentage in the document, that's not a problem.

Official Languages committee  Precisely. That's another part of the solution. In my view, we need to have a number of parts to the solution.

Official Languages committee  I went to the CRTC a few times. When we go there, we are asked questions such as the ones that you asked us this morning. So I find it interesting. It's usually a good sign. If they don't ask us questions, it's a bad sign. So we were asked a lot of questions for roughly 40 minutes.

Official Languages committee  The federal government, its departments and its programs are less and less heard and less and less visible in communities. Money is being spent, but the process is such that we're not the ones spending it. As a result, people in communities are hearing less and less about you, MPs and the federal government.

Official Languages committee  We worked closely with the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec in preparing our brief for the CRTC and during our meeting with the Deputy Minister of Heritage Canada. Our colleague from this association produced an interesting table — I don't have it here, but we can send it to you — which shows that community radio stations make up 20 per cent of francophone radio stations, but only 1 per cent of revenues.

Official Languages committee  I will forward the documentation on this file.

Official Languages committee  Well, since you are asking for our opinion, I will take this opportunity to deal with some points that are not in our document. I am afraid that, once again, they deal with money, but that is beside the point. Not too long ago, we appeared before the CRTC to ask the commission to create a fund for Canadian community radio.

Official Languages committee  Well, sir, if you would like to give us more...

Official Languages committee  That is to say...

Official Languages committee  Mr. Godin, I will give you a few examples. After the sponsorship's scandal, Radio Fredericton, in New Brunswick, experienced a significant reduction in its federal sponsorships. It has been struggling ever since. That radio station almost closed its doors at least twice. Members of Parliament from New Brunswick were made aware of this problem, especially Mr.

Official Languages committee  We have been working on gaining social economy enterprise status for the past year, and we meet all of the criteria. Allow me to provide some examples as to how our community radio stations are active in the social economy and the field of community development. I was the CEO of a very successful community radio station in Shediac called Radio Beauséjour; I am sure Mr.

Official Languages committee  I will begin and then my colleagues can follow up. Almost all the political parties, and even some members from a certain political party which did not feel it was appropriate to vote in favour of Bill S-3, made the decision before the election campaign to make the bill a priority and to vote in support of it.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you. The Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada currently has 30 members, including 21 stations on the air, three at the start up stage and six at the implementation stage. We are active in nine provinces and two territories. Our network has a potential audience of 450,000 listeners and employs 110 permanent staff.