Since you've received the brief, I'm going to address its content briefly.
Sports-Québec is a private corporation that represents 64 federations and 17 regional sports and recreation units. It is important for us to remind you that we are not a government organization, but rather a private corporation that reaches 800,000 members, Quebeckers, 60,000 coaches and 400,000 volunteers.
This issue is a particular interest and challenge for us. Current investments in sport are minimal. No major and significant investment is currently being made in sport, and that has an impact. It leads us to solicit private businesses. However, those businesses are increasingly raising their requirements. As there is a lot of competition, more choices are being offered to them. That increases their requirements even more, and it is difficult to meet them. Since investment is minimal, we are required to seek new funding in order to finance ourselves. The expectations and requirements of our clientele, whether they be grassroots participants, beginners or high-level athletes, are great, which puts pressure on the system as a whole.
The needs of businesses are greater as well. Since they have a number of choices, they demand that we offer them a lot of benefits. They say they need visibility and want the money invested in us to be profitable. In the past, we had much more significant relations with Radio-Canada. The corporation offered certain services free of charge. It has not only stopped its subsidies and support in the area of visibility, it has simply withdrawn from the sector. For example, it is absent, or virtually absent, from the Quebec Games and Canada Games and national and international championships.
In our view, Radio-Canada has responsibilities as a Crown corporation. With regard to healthy living habits, it can be said that sport is a major solution. In that sense, the role played by Radio-Canada is really inadequate.
In our brief, we've emphasized certain specific moments. In 2002, Radio-Canada terminated the program Les jeux sont faits. In 2003, the televised sports news program was removed from the network, to which we reacted strongly. That was a major loss, in view of the fact that it was broadcast on the Radio-Canada national network. In 2005, the weekly magazine Adrénaline was also removed from the airwaves, and a single daily 30-minute program, Au-dessus de la mêlée, was broadcast. However, it is almost entirely devoted to professional sports. Lastly, in 2005, Radio-Canada did not win the rights to broadcast the Vancouver Games. And yet this is an event that will be held in Canada. For us, this is a significant loss and will have a significant effect.
We will have to watch the English-language network in order to see our own athletes. It makes you wonder. The amount of air time devoted to federated sport is constantly declining, and, where that is not the case, fees are levied. This situation is becoming difficult, even untenable, for organizations at our level. Non-profit organizations must secure funding, but that is becoming all the more difficult in view of needs and expectations.
With regard to Radio-Canada's mandate, we are going to focus on subparagraphs 3(1)(m)(ii), 4 and 7, on which we have some comments to make. We feel that sport is part of the culture of a country. When we say culture, we naturally think of the arts. For us, sport has the same meaning within the culture of a country. In this area, Radio-Canada is not really playing its role. It is not active enough in the area of federated sport.
When we say amateur sport, we're talking about federated sports, that is to say those attached to federated organizations. They are given little coverage in Radio-Canada's programming schedule. There is indeed a gap. This is not a comparison between the CBC and Radio-Canada, but rather an observation. There is really a world of difference between the amount of time devoted to sport on CBC and that devoted to sport on Radio-Canada. In this regard, certain aspects of the mandate are not being met, if we're talking about Anglophone and Francophone presentations. We think that sport, for all Francophones outside Quebec, is given insignificant or no coverage. The information that we have comes from communities to which we provide services across Canada.
I'm coming to the recommendations because I think this is an important aspect. We recommend that the legislative mandate of Radio-Canada/CBC include the responsibility to contribute to the promotion of healthy living habits and federated sport. We want it on the record, recognized and specifically stated that Radio-Canada has a responsibility toward Francophones, including those outside Quebec.
We recommend that all revenue generated by coverage of the Olympics and professional sport be systematically reinvested in the production of programs promoting healthy living habits and federated sport.
We also recommend that Radio-Canada establish partnerships with other broadcasters. That has been done. Let's take the example of RDS. As it is always a matter of costs, we think it is possible for the corporation to be active and intervene in a manner consistent with its financial means.
We recommend that a genuine sports service be established at Radio-Canada. We know about the pooling of resources and technologies. Federated sport has more of a presence on the Internet, but is virtually absent from radio and television. We think that the integration and introduction of a genuine sports team at Radio-Canada would be an advantage and that it would result in maximum use of the skills of all journalists. That is being done and that should be done in the field of sport.
We recommend that sports programming be dedicated to federated sport and provided by Radio-Canada on the conventional and specialty networks. For example, we know perfectly well that not everyone in Montreal has cable. Consequently, the Première Chaîne must really be able to reach those people.
We recommend that Radio-Canada contribute to promoting federated sport by producing and broadcasting sports news programs divided fairly between federated and professional sport. We would like the corporation to return to prime time news broadcasts. They appear on the specialty networks such as RDI, of the Radio-Canada station itself, and reach the conventional network. There's little coverage of, or few references to, federated sport.
We recommend that Radio-Canada produce and broadcast promotional material on improved physical fitness for Canadians: advertising spots, special programs, regular series, specialty magazines, use of inspiring sports models, highlighting our athletes. When you want to change the culture and the ways in which the people as a whole do things, you present them with known and recognized models.
Lastly, we recommend that programming for children and youth include segments popularizing healthy living habits. We must take advantage of these programs, which are aimed specifically at youths, to broadcast messages concerning healthy living habits.
We think that, by touching all these elements, Radio-Canada will truly play its role as a national general-interest corporation for Quebec and Canada.