Mr. Chairman, of course all of us have had representations by Canadians.
I think one of the interesting things that was said by our witnesses from the CBC was that Canadians are as engaged on this issue as they are, as brought out by Mr. Godfrey and others. That is excellent and says that people care about the CBC, but I think we do have to take a look at jurisdiction. I think we have to take a look at the legislation within the Broadcasting Act as to whether in fact it would fit in with the law, as I read it, for us to be undertaking this trip.
I'm taking a look at the Broadcasting Act, under standing committees, subclause 45(4). Let me read it:
The standing committee on English language broadcasting shall perform such duties in relation to English language broadcasting, and the standing committee on French language broadcasting shall perform such duties in relation to French language broadcasting, as are delegated to the committee by the by-laws of the Corporation.
So, to begin with, there is a question about the jurisdiction. It very well may be a good exercise in this virtual negative public relations exercise that we would fundamentally be undertaking. It may be a good exercise, but we don't really have the jurisdiction.
Furthermore, the Broadcasting Act is very, very explicit under objects and powers, subclause 46(5), which is the most germane one:
The Corporation shall, in the pursuit of its objects and in the exercise of its powers, enjoy freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence.
So the CBC, if there were a desire—and I'm not suggesting there should be or even that there is—to change the Broadcasting Act to make it that committees could go to Vancouver and have hearings with Canadians and give direction to the CBC, that would require a change in the Broadcasting Act.
If I may read this most germane clause again:
The Corporation shall, in the pursuit of its objects and in the exercise of its powers, enjoy freedom of expression and journalistic, creative
--and this is the key one--
and programming independence.
So we could go and we could take the time of the committee and the dollars to go to Vancouver, and we could have these hearings, but we have no jurisdiction. So the hearings would be very interesting, and I'm sure the executives of the CBC would probably take note of what was said at those hearings, just as much as they took note of many of the comments by my colleague, Mr. Fast, by Bill Siksay, by Mr. Coderre, as they did at the committee hearing last time, but nothing changes. We have to make sure that what it is we're doing on behalf of the people of Canada will have the potential to have a change, and as I say, according to my reading of the Broadcasting Act, 1991, we have no jurisdiction. So I don't know why we would be going through this exercise.