I'll start by answering the first question. What was the purpose of the legislation? What was the legislator seeking to do by creating obligations for the cable distributor which was, at the time, a monopoly? Well, this monopoly has completely disappeared. As you know full well, Canadians benefit from a communications system that is this effective because billions of dollars were invested in it. Mr. Shaw referred to that.
The same applies to us. We invested $750 million in Videotron. We will also be investing $1 billion over the next three years to ensure, once again, that Canadians may enjoy the most recent technologies, a competitive environment and telecommunication services at the most competitive prices.
Originally, the objective of the legislation was to contribute to Canadian programming or to what was referred to as the Canadian broadcasting system. Well, that's exactly what we want. We want to do so more effectively than the bureaucratic structure which is in place currently does, but because of the persnickety rules in place, it has been more of a hindrance than anything else.
My colleague Mr. Lavoie mentioned it earlier. It's been a while now that we have been raising the issue of new platforms.
Why isn't the Canadian Television Fund able to think further ahead than this? For a very simply reason: independent producers are not interested in it. They are not interested in ensuring that new distribution channels are strong—for the Canadian industry as a whole and over the medium and long term.
Why would an independent producer, receiving 20% of production costs, and therefore having no real financial incentive to create quality products at the best possible cost be interested in changing the system? There is no incentive in it for him.
You need to know that what triggers the CTF contribution is the general-interest channel, only if it holds a broadcasting distribution licence on the general-interest channel. Any other distribution licence would only hold up the triggering of the CTF contribution. These are technical details, but they are extremely important. Unfortunately, that is where the problem lies.