Thank you, Mr. Malo.
First, your introduction very much reassures me because, if you mention that you're going to meet with me again, that means you won't have any objection to my term continuing.
As to your more specific question on new media, we do say “new media”. This is something that is new for us all and that is developing exponentially on a daily basis. We currently have $14 million in funding to support these initiatives. I feel that the program currently in place—and this is me speaking personally now, not Telefilm Canada—is an experimental program. We're experimenting in a new sector consisting mostly of very small businesses and of entrepreneurs who can invent things in their basements, come up with brilliant ideas, but who then don't have the necessary resources to develop and market their products. And it's often at that stage that they're bought out by others, by foreigners who ultimately benefits from their bright minds.
We're somewhat in the situation Quebec was in a few years ago, when our natural resources were being exploited by others. That's somewhat what's happening. I believe that, at some point, there will be a change in the way we address the new media program. I think we'll have to ask ourselves this question: what do we do with new media? Should we continue to support them in a lukewarm and timid fashion, or should we take the leadership role in developing new media?
If we assume leadership in new media development, that will take much more considerable funding than what we currently have. When you look at the feature film industry, which is a major industry in Canada, you see that box office receipts are $850 to $860 million, perhaps $900 million in good years. New media revenues in Canada are about $5 billion. This is a much bigger industry. If we want to assume leadership of that industry, we will obviously have to...
Furthermore, I also wonder, given the size of this business—and once again this is a personal thought—whether, if we develop a new media fund, we'll be able to afford to act as a bank. I'm thinking of a bank that would make high-risk loans, for example, but that would manage to get a return on its loans, on its investment, which would enable it to constitute a fund that would then be enough to enable us to assume leadership in new media development.