Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Monsieur Roy, for appearing before us today. So far I've been quite encouraged by the testimony you've given to us.
I did notice from your opening comments that you understood very well the mandate of Telefilm Canada, and I'll just quote that back to you. You refer to its role as being “to support the development and promotion of an audiovisual industry and of talented Canadians who...seek to attract audiences at home and abroad, using all broadcasting platforms available to them”.
That's correct. Much of the focus in the mandate is an industrial-cultural focus, making sure that our industry is healthy. But you also acknowledged earlier, when you responded to my colleague's comments, that in fact there also has to be accountability to the public, because it is taxpayers' money. There has to be a level of understanding of what the public values are that Telefilm Canada should reflect.
I'll tell you quite frankly that I don't believe it's the role of this committee to act as a censor. I will say this, though. When there are public moneys involved, we want to make sure that the product the taxpayers pay for is one that taxpayers in general consider to be reflective of the values we have.
There was a suggestion, actually, from my colleagues on the other side of this table that perhaps we didn't understand the content of the films my colleague referred to. We are very well aware of them. We've seen significant portions of at least one of those films. Unfortunately, my impression was that the content was degrading to women. It focused more on recreational sexual activity than loving relationships. It was not redeeming. At the end of the day, I'm not sure Canadians would have been left with something that would improve them as human beings.
I was really encouraged to hear you acknowledge that there is a set of public values Telefilm Canada must take cognizance of. So thank you for that.
I will say this. You're going to be challenged fulfilling the mandate, because you have so many stakeholders you're responsible for. You're responsible to the industry, you're responsible to government, and you're responsible to the public.
Can you let this committee know how you're going to determine your response to these various stakeholders? Will you have a consultation process on a regular basis? And what will that consultation process look like to ensure Telefilm Canada is strong and actually fulfills the mandate, the vision, and the mission that's clearly articulated, certainly on the website that I viewed?