I issued the press release after the minister had publicly asked them to resume payments. I had been, at that point in time, one week on the job. I was being briefed and the minister made that comment, and obviously I read letters from several parties. For instance, the Directors Guild asked me to step in because the season was in jeopardy and asked for regular payments to be resumed.
After being briefed by my staff, understanding the legal situation and realizing that, notwithstanding all the verbiage about breaking the law, they actually weren't breaking the law--they were breaking an industry custom that had arisen--I decided I have the tool and I can use it, although I don't want to use it. I don't believe in confrontation if it can be avoided, but on the other hand we are responsible for Canadian content. We direct payments into this fund and we want the fund to produce Canadian content. That's not happening if the monthly payments aren't happening.
I think the words in our press release were very careful, saying “if necessary” we will move expeditiously to legislate monthly payments, which so far had been done on a customary basis, but not on a legally obligatory basis.