Mr. Chair, we are in favour of this motion. I have no statement to make for the media, so I will not take as long as my colleague. But I feel that we should also bear in mind that the president and the vice-presidents of CBC/Radio-Canada were here last week and we still listened to their point of view. We heard their point of view first-hand, whether we accepted it or not. But it would be appropriate for us as parliamentarians to take the pulse of Canadians. We have all received letters and every lobby group in the world has sent the same message.
I think it's useful to have that kind of discussion. Now we're talking about urgently having those hearings in May 2008. I guess we should take a look at what you have on the agenda already, but I think, for the sake of the discussion, we will support that motion for all the reasons that we spoke of in the last meeting, because we asked all those questions about it from both sides of the committee. I think it's an appropriate one.
I'm questioning a bit the fact that you want to hear it urgently in May 2008. Maybe we should have some discussion--not another filibuster--on that. However, I will support that motion.
I think that my Vancouver colleagues, Don Bell, Hedy Fry, among others, are working very hard and are in complete agreement that we should look into this problem. We must also protect the spirit of what CBC Radio 2 is presently doing with classical music. The radio orchestra is part of our heritage too. It is the last one in North American and it must be protected.
I will not do the same as the anglophone chair,
who called that just a band. I think it's more than that.
I believe, though, that we should be supportive of our colleague, and why not go to Vancouver?