Thank you very much, Mr. Scott.
On your first point, I think it's an absolutely valid concern you raise in regard to exceptions to the rule, if we want to call it that. In other words, consideration has to be given to all of the regions of Canada. Where there are exceptions to the rule, as you suggest would be the case in your hometown, the CBC should certainly be sensitive to that.
We have no grievance or we have no particularly strong views on that point. However, we think the rule should not be that they try to duplicate, but that they try to be complementary.
To the second part of your question, what is complementary? I would start with the concept that the complementary role of the CBC and Radio-Canada should be one that abides by one particularly important founding principle among others.
Let me take a moment on one. The CBC's role in the system should not have a distorting effect on the commercial marketplace for private broadcasters. When the CBC or Radio-Canada has a distorting commercial impact on the marketplace, it is no longer complementary. There is effectively direct competition in the marketplace, as opposed to complementarity in the marketplace. It can be assessed or measured in a variety of ways, which we could get into some discussion on.
But I think the principle would come from what we tried to say in our written submission and again here this morning. If you add the concept of any distortion in the marketplace, it has to be viewed as less than complementary. There may well be circumstances, and we could examine them, where the distortion has an offsetting public policy advantage to it and it should be looked at. But I think the principle should nonetheless be such that wherever there is such distortion, we would try to avoid it at all cost.