Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the guests for coming here today.
This is really my first time on the committee. I have a point, and then I have some questions.
My first point is similar to that of my colleague from the Bloc on lack of coverage. I'm from Cape Breton, and northern Cape Breton has a real lack of CBC coverage. There's a community called Pleasant Bay; they're even willing to get land for you to put up a tower—they have a request in. This is more for the record, to tie in with my colleague's point. If you can look into that, it would be really appreciated.
I have two questions. One is, we are a CBC house, and my children tend to stay with me most of the morning and listen to the radio, if they have to, but we all tend to lose it in the afternoon.
I was just wondering: when you sit around the table among producers.... I'm trying to think who would listen between one and four o'clock to CBC radio. I'm not trying to be too critical, but it's the commentators and the music, and I just don't find it relevant to 99% of the people. I like to keep the channel on all through the day, because.... But music can be changed and be relevant to all groups of people. So that's a question: did you ever think of changing the format or what's on in the afternoon show?
The other one is dealing with employees. I've had complaints even from reporters from the CBC who work in my region. Do you find, concerning flexibility with employees—upward movement, young talent coming in—that the unions, maybe, or the people representing your employees are stifling that, or keeping the CBC's hands tied, inasmuch as you could have a better mix or vibrancy, or even a better coverage on the weekend if they wanted to do overtime? That's my second question.