Let me qualify that. When you travel, you often meet with the elite, the people who are involved in the francophonie milieu. The average citizen does not necessarily ask to appear before the committee. Of course, these people listen to the CBC/SRC, but you have to pay attention to the real figures, because they are the only ones that have any meaning. The ratings in Nova Scotia are lower than 1%; that speaks for itself. There's no use hiding it: in Montreal, the French-language CBC radio network is a huge success. They have excellent ratings. However, as you move away from the city towards the regions, the audience share drops to 3%, as is the case in Moncton. By contrast, the Shediac community radio station, CJSE, has a 54% rating, the best one of all the stations combined, even the English-language ones. That is how things are.
As to demand, we have nine stations in the works, which means that nine communities want to set up their own radio station. It is a lengthy process. They have to first come up with 50% of the funding, which means that they have to organize a yearly fundraising campaign. The demand is even greater out West, because of the development work that has to be done. As you know, the francophone community in western Canada is weakened and spread out across a wide area. That makes things difficult for us.
There is a demand, but it is not easy to mobilize a community that is already challenged to set up a radio station that will take six, seven or eight years before it begins broadcasting, particularly when the tools and the funding are not all readily available. Moreover, once you have taken the plunge, you have to be sure that your head will remain above water. In a small anglophone community with 1,000, 2,000, 4,000 or 5,000 inhabitants, that is a real challenge. Setting up a community radio station in Calgary is no mean feat. There is a population of 10,000 or 15,000 francophones, but no francophone neighbourhood. It is very difficult to mobilize people and to ensure that such a project will be properly funded.