Yes and no. As part of my job, it is absolutely vital that I understand what the industry thinks, or what the players in the industry think, and hear their views unfiltered either by briefing notes from my staff or intermediaries. So I have been taking off every Friday since being appointed to visit a different city to meet with the key players in the industry. I will probably do this for the rest of the year. Of course, I start with the large players and the small players, and I will talk to some of the umbrella organizations.
So I started off in Montreal my very first week in office, and I met four people. One of them was Pierre Karl-Péladeau. With me was Michel. We talked in general about the industry, where it was going, and about the challenges and the new media, etc. Of course, we also talked about the CTF, but in a very cursory way or at a very general level, with my point being: look, you have to resume funding. If you don't resume funding, there'll be disarray in the industry, and that won't be helpful to a resolution. That was about the extent of our discussions.
Last week—again with Michel—I met with Mr. Shaw and his vice-president, Mr. Stein, because this issue was obviously burning. It was actually the night before they came to appear before you. I said exactly the same thing: this is an issue that the minister wants resolved and she has asked you to pay, and I have asked you to pay. As I said this morning, I told them I preferred cooperation to confrontation and thought we could work it out, but the first step was that they had to resume payments. If they resumed payments, then we would will strike a task force and deal with it.
Again, it was in very broad strokes, without details, and with me just saying, I realize this is a problem; I didn't choose it; it landed on my desk. It is an enforcement issue, or will become one; I've got to deal with it and I intend to deal with it quickly, but first of all, I need something from you, namely, a resumption of the payments, because without them, I'm driven to do it in a confrontational mode, etc.
Obviously, whatever I said and Michel said was enough for Mr. Shaw to do it and come here and suggest to you.... Maybe he had already decided, I don't know, but he mentioned to you that he was resuming payments
Then in order to make it clear that I meant business, that this issue had to be resolved and couldn't gather dust, the same day we issued our report, appointing Michel, and pointing out the mandate and the timetable for the task force.