There is no question that if you're going to have a successful indigenous industry, the first step must be to ensure the financial stability of that industry. What the government did a couple of weeks ago, when Minister Oda announced that their $100 million contribution at least has been stabilized for two years, is an extremely important step.
One has to recognize—and I'd like Mr. Stursberg to jump in, if you don't mind—that basically we in the industry thought we had a solid deal with the cable operators, with the funders, which together with the government's contribution would result in precisely that: a stable Canadian television fund, and one that would grow slowly with the growth of the population and the growth of the take-up rate of cable and DTH. And the government would also, we hoped, maintain its contribution, which it has done.
These are the minimum conditions. But there's a lot of history here, and it's worth perhaps looking at the history, because we shouldn't be having this discussion at all. In fact, since I've been at the CBC, the discussion's been around two things: the CBC's getting stable funding, because without that funding we can't even access the fund; and the government's commitment, over the years, of its $100 million contribution.
But perhaps I should ask Mr. Stursberg to elaborate, Mr. Chair.