Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Dalfen, I am not asking you this question as Chairperson of the CRTC, but rather as someone who has acquired a great deal of experience in this area. Ten, fifteen or twenty years ago, people did not anticipate what the Internet would become today. And we are in no position to anticipate what kind of changes will occur as regards satellite radio, Internet radio, IP telephony and cellular television.
In terms of convergence, it is inevitable that we will have concerns at some point, because the industry perspective will probably prevail over the cultural perspective. The reason I am raising this by way of introduction is that if the directive to increase foreign control over telecommunications were to be acted on, there would be two major consequences: the offshoring of decision-making centres and increased control by American companies of Canadian culture. That is something that we could not possibly have anticipated a few years ago, when the legislation in the two areas of culture and telecommunications made no provision for any such thing.
However, based on your personal experience, do you not think this is a good opportunity to sit down and calmly, seriously consider this matter, avoiding any partisanship -- in our case, we are inured to that sport -- particularly if our concern is to preserve cultural identities?
