Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for appearing before us today and for taking time out of your busy schedules.
This is a mandate review. We're reviewing the role of the public broadcaster in Canada. I suppose what's a little bit troubling and challenging here is the fact that the current mandate is quite broad, dealing with Canadian distinctiveness, the reflection of Canada and its regions, the French and English languages, and national consciousness and identity, but it doesn't tell us how we're going to fulfill that mandate. Depending on the leadership of the CBC, we've been taken in different directions. Most recently we've been taken in a direction where CBC appears to be trying to compete with the private broadcasters, and that, I think, is where the challenge lies. Is that the role of the CBC? The mandate could be construed to actually include that. It could also be construed as being quite different.
We've had other witnesses before us. In Ottawa recently we had a former president of the CBC together with the chief of staff to former Prime Minister Joe Clark. In many respects their comments reflected yours today, especially when it comes to the commercialization of CBC. One thing they came up with was that they would like to see CBC become less commercial, rely less on commercial revenues. They didn't take the position that CBC should become totally non-reliant on those revenues, but they certainly saw a lesser role for commercial revenues.
They also suggested that subsidies to the private sector, to the private broadcaster, should be eliminated, but as a trade-off they suggested that Canadian content requirements should be reduced or even eliminated for those private broadcasters.
What do you see as being the role of private broadcasters in supporting a public broadcaster? Do you have any suggestions for us as to how that could be fleshed out? Or should private broadcasters be released from some of those shackles in return for contributing towards a more robust public broadcaster?