Thank you.
I think I'm just going to repeat for the third time the same message. I happen to agree with them almost 100%. I have just two pages here.
My opinion is the CBC relative to all private stations has been the most balanced in presenting regional and cultural information as well as in reporting news.
The CBC, as mandated, has contributed to a distinctive Canadian identity, and because of its independence from for-profit ownership it has to a greater extent contributed to a national social consciousness rather than to promoting consumerism. However, with the global event of Internet starting in the nineties, the traditional diffusion of information has gradually evolved at least on two fronts. First, the CBC hierarchical top-down one-way traditional system has increasingly become outdated and replaced by a non-hierarchical horizontal independent media where ordinary lay people are interacting in the diffusion of news and information.
Second, the issues prioritized by a few CBC professional reporters and producers are not necessarily accepted as the same as the issues concerning most citizens. In other words, the limited choice of issues from one team of professional broadcasters needs to be expanded to more public participation. Therefore, I suggest that one of the organic ways for CBC to keep up with the evolving communication trends is to include in the Broadcasting Act a CBC mandate to open some community access programming to non-profit, non-religious, non-partisan, local independent media producer groups.
A precedent to this suggestion is the CRTC's regulation in 2002 that required privately owned cable television stations to grant community groups up to 25% access on television. This CRTC requirement, which includes more public participation, should be extended to CBC as well.
In reference to the governance structure, the hierarchical corporate governance of CBC and Radio-Canada needs to democratize itself by having an elected board of directors. I don't mean it has to be elected by every citizen in the country. I would accept an election by all 309 legislators, but there should be some form of election rather than just appointments by one person. And that should be for each local station. Furthermore, the access to programming should have an advisory board composed of all its participants.
If the Canadian heritage committee and the democratically elected ministers have in mind a democratization of information and communications, a fundamental principle to keep in mind should be to democratize the governance structure of CBC, because, after all, that is what democracy is all about.
In regard to partnerships between CBC and private broadcasters, the uniqueness of CBC is precisely its public ownership, which theoretically at least may not be influenced by privately owned interests. Selling a proportion of CBC to for-profit partners is effectively dismantling that original uniqueness.
For-profit partners would impair CBC from carrying out its present mandate, and eventually the for-profit partners would transform CBC into another commercially efficient enterprise. This simple prognosis is based on the ancient fact that the main interest of any business is to make profit. The present mandate of CBC of providing a public service is not in the least concerned with profit.
I suggest that we adequately maintain CBC's uniqueness as a democratic medium for information and keep it separate from the for-profit broadcasters, who may continue advertising their products and services on their own.
With respect to the new media, if CBC were fully funded by taxes, the emergence of new media would have no financial implications for CBC/Radio-Canada's overall budget.
With regard to regulating the new media, CRTC, in conjunction with local municipal governments, should extend its transmission regulations to municipal wireless networks. We have traffic bylaws to avoid chaos. We also need regulations for low-frequency networks to avoid abuse.
Thank you very much.