No, I plead guilty to being blunt. And Bill, having worked with me for about 10 years at the CBC, knows that I can be quite blunt, and stubborn at times.
You've quoted me absolutely correctly. I haven't really departed fundamentally from the position that you have just quoted me on, from the opinion article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen. I have modified it somewhat as a result of further reflection.
But the point I want to make here is that in Canada the private for-profit broadcasters do receive substantial assistance in the form of tax breaks, subsidies from the Canadian Television Fund, and provisions of the Income Tax Act that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So it's not just the CBC that receives financial support from the government; private broadcasters do too. And that's a direct consequence of the economics of television production in Canada, because we're a relatively small market.
Now, the private broadcasters have been given certain obligations for Canadian content. They're obviously not as onerous as the obligations of the CBC, and quite rightly so. But I'm saying I believe in the free enterprise system. I happen to fundamentally believe that is the system that generates the greatest wealth, prosperity, and also it's the system that's most compatible with freedom, which I also happen to believe in.
So I say let the privates do what the privates do best, which is to make money. And I'm not convinced that we should eliminate all Canadian content requirements, but I think they could be looked at a little bit more realistically. I think if the CRTC were to do that, private broadcasters would still do some Canadian content--maybe less than now, but they will do it whenever it meets their commercial objectives, and they should be free to do that.
But in exchange for that, fund the CBC properly, because it's the CBC's mandate to provide Canadian content. So don't ask the private broadcasters to do things that go against their commercial objectives, but at the same time don't put the CBC in a position where it's doing what the private broadcasters do best, which is to make money. They're two different things.
That's my point.