A local television station is, first of all, the information centre: it broadcasts the news. With increasing media concentration—and that won't stop—Canada's Francophone market has witnessed a certain standardization of content. Information is manufactured in Montreal and redistributed in the regions.
We think that local life exists. The softwood lumber problem in northern Quebec, for example, had virtually no impact in Montreal. If I live in Outremont or Westmount, the softwood lumber or mining problems in northern Quebec don't concern me. However, if live in Rouyn-Noranda, my life and my family are affected. So I need a community life so that I can talk about and debate those issues. That's it for information.
As for cultural life, an important festival was held in Rouyn-Noranda, at the International Film Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. In Montreal, there's little interest in it, because there's already a major film festival in that city, and there's an even bigger one in Cannes. The Rouyn-Noranda film festival, who cares? But it's important for the people who live there.
There's also the guitar festival in Rouyn-Noranda. There are local cultural activities. These people are entitled to a community life. Television is like the church steps: it enables people to gather and talk. Economic promotion, community works, all that is disappearing because we live in big cities and that's where decisions are made.
And yet half the population lives outside those major cities. We're a kind of economic, cultural, social and information driver. One hundred percent of our news is local. No one can do it; the networks can't do it anymore because that's no longer their purpose. Their economic model is built on something else. That's the big difference.