Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for coming this morning and giving us your perspectives.
Representing some French-speaking communities in my riding in northern Alberta, I can relate from my constituents that they have expressed the same concerns you're bringing today—that it's great to have a bilingual broadcaster or a French broadcaster in their communities that they can get if they subscribe, but unfortunately it doesn't reflect who they are; it reflects a Quebec reality.
I'm just wondering if we could talk about it a little more. Obviously the current mandate really outlines for Radio-Canada and for the CBC that they should reflect the linguistic minorities and the circumstances of those minorities. It doesn't say there should be a provincial boundary to that expression, but only that it should be an expression of those linguistic communities. Obviously you've expressed that there is some concern with regard to your community, and I would say that the same expression is also coming from my own constituents.
In the Broadcasting Act it is very clear. I will just read it: they are to “contribute to shared national consciousness and identity”. I would suspect it's maybe a coded way of saying they should promote a national feeling of camaraderie between communities of a particular language, and probably even across linguistic lines as well.
Do you believe the original intent of the act was to cross those boundaries as well? Could you talk about how working to this direction might help with the whole issue of national unity and the whole issue of unity across the country between communities?