Sure. Thank you very much for that opportunity.
We understand there's an ambiguity within the CRTC regulatory environment that makes the annual payment provisions of the BDU regulations enforceable while the monthly payment requirements of the CRTC circular are apparently somewhat less enforceable. To address this issue, we recommend that the applicable provisions of the BDU regulations be amended so that they include all of the necessary payment requirements currently included in the circular.
Secondly, we see the BDUs, because they are contributors to the system, as having an important role in the debate. Because we are an operational agency that operates under direction from the Department of Canadian Heritage, we think that policy debate should be at what we call the “big P” ministerial level. So we are recommending that the minister establish a form of funders council, which would meet each time the department signs a contribution agreement with the fund, to give the minister input and the government input on the policy directions that we would receive in the contribution agreement. We think this is a more appropriate forum at which to have that dialogue than is the operational level at which we work.
We believe it is time to add an additional seat to the board for direct-to-home satellite providers. As you may know, there's been one seat alone for the satellite providers and three for the cable operators, and for some time it's been apparent that as the contribution of the DTH providers rises, it's not appropriate to continue with a single seat. So we do feel that it's time to add that additional seat.
Finally, we recommend the establishment of a nominating organization to represent the interests on the board of all of the BDUs. Apart from the CBC-SRC, we do not have and do not believe it is appropriate to have dedicated corporate seats on our board. All our seats are held through trade organizations, such as the CAB, the CFTPA, and so on.
The CCTA is dissolving formally this August, and there needs to be a replacement organization that would nominate the BDU representatives to the board. Otherwise their entitlement to sit on the board will evaporate, and notwithstanding all that's gone on in the past few weeks, we welcome their participation on the board. The quality of the contribution made by the BDU directors—there are four of them—over the entire course of the history of the fund has been of a very high calibre, and we would like to see them back at the table.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.