The way it works right now is that all the broadcasters receive envelopes of different sizes of the total money that's available. In the case of the CBC, as everybody has pointed out, we receive 37% of the fund for English and French together. We then contract with independent producers to make the programs we want to show on the air.
For example, if you look at the programs on the chart that Bob put out, the ones in green are financed through the fund. The fund is essentially focused on the four kinds of programming that are the most difficult to finance in the Canadian context: drama, documentaries, kids, and variety and performing arts. The ones that the fund permits us to commission are only those that are what the fund calls “distinctively Canadian”.
The way it would work is that we would meet independent producers; they would pitch us various ideas of one variety or another within the context of making those kinds of programs--documentaries, kids, drama, etc.--that are distinctively Canadian in character. We would choose the ones we want to make; then we would enter into a contract with the independent producer, and the money would flow to the independent producer--both our licence fees and the cash from the fund, plus the tax credits--to finance the production.