Let me follow that up with another question, which I've asked a number of witnesses.
There is perhaps one comment that has been repeated time and time again: the whole issue of sustainable funding for the CBC. There is evidence before this committee that in terms of real dollars, CBC's funding is about half of what it used to be. Of course, one of the ways you get funding is for the federal government to increase funding to the CBC. However, that's not necessarily the only model.
I refer to testimony we heard from a former CBC president, Tony Manera, who was in Ottawa a few weeks ago. He made the bold statement that he believes “The federal government should cancel all tax subsidies and credits now going to private broadcasters and redirect those funds to the CBC.” In return, he says, there should be “a relaxation of Canadian content requirements for private broadcasters, who should be free to offer whatever mix of programming best suits their commercial objectives.”
So they're saying there might be a trade-off here.
One of the questions I had after that meeting, to Mr. Neville, who was also there, a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Joe Clark, was that obviously the private broadcasters would love to be freed of the shackles of Canadian content rules, but if in fact that happens, there has to be a trade-off, which is that they have to understand they have an obligation to support a vibrant and strong public broadcaster, and are they prepared to commit to providing funding that enhances the government funding to make sure that CBC is strong, that CBC can actually improve the number of Canadian dramas that are shown on CBC?
What are your comments? What would your reaction be to a very significant paradigm shift in the future?