Thank you very much.
I want to apologize for being late. I waited three-quarters of an hour for a taxi this morning.
I've tried to ask a clear question: what would you think if there was no more CBC? What we've heard from every sector is that the CBC is extraordinarily important to Canadians. Their concern, however, is that you are not getting to them any more, and of course that has to do with the new digital mode and not having the infrastructure to get there. In many instances you've had to cancel where you were going because people have to tag on to cable television to get there.
We've heard over and over that people think you're doing a good job with what you have, but that you must move into the regions in a different way; that you must reflect Canadians back to themselves, especially from the regions to the nation, as well as from the nation to the regions. You're not doing as well from the regions to the nation as you could. People have all said one important thing: the CBC must be funded appropriately.
We've seen the reports and know what cities have studied, etc., that have basically said that we're way down the ladder. Given that Canadians support a public broadcaster, given that people say that you need to have more money, would you see the CBC working well and differently if it were given better funding? Would it actually work in the way that the BBC has done, if you changed your system of reporting, to have direct responsibility to Parliament, with a specific trust that would look after much of how you function, so that you could be far more accountable for the money you have and go to Parliament, not necessarily to anyone else, so you could get the feedback from Parliament, so every year you would be able to table what you're doing?
People also thought you needed to focus more. Many feature film people said that you, the CBC, could be the distributor in the digital medium for Canadian feature films, for Canadian documentaries, and for Canadian performing arts, which, as you know, has been cancelled and was a well-watched section of what the CBC used to do.
I want to know what your comments are on some of those things.