Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for appearing before us today.
When I go into my communities, I don't hear about governance. My residents don't talk about funding and they don't talk about advertising; the one thing they talk about is relevance. Is CBC relevant to them?
It's the one issue you haven't touched on in your presentation to us today. When I go into my community, which is Abbotsford, when I talk to people from surrounding communities, typically when you talk about CBC, you're going to be talking about whether it's relevant to them as families, as individuals. Do they see themselves on CBC? There are many Canadians who do, but increasingly, I hear complaints that my residents don't see themselves in the programming that CBC provides.
It's been said that CBC is supposed to be the face of Canada that we see reflected back at us. I think there is an assumption that there is one face of Canada we all agree on. I would suggest to you that's not the case. In fact, Canada has many different faces, although we may have a defining set of underlying values, given our multicultural society, our pluralistic society, something we pride ourselves in.
What suggestion can you make that is going to make CBC more relevant to the average Canadian? Let me just point you in a direction. I believe the appointment of an ombudsman was a good first step, but I suspect there's more we can do to make sure the programming we show on CBC attracts Canadian viewers who are looking for Canadian content, and not only Canadian content, but content that speaks to them and reflects their face back at them.
Your comments.