Mr. Chair, given that we understand that when we were doing our Canadian television fund hearings, or whatever you want to call them, we heard many people say that they did not like the fact that the CBC got 37% of the envelope, I am really concerned that those in government will try to remove that 37% when they start making decisions as to how to allocate.
We also know that we have those graphs, if you recall, with the big red, blue, and green slots, showing that certain other public broadcasters and educational programmers, such as APTN, TVO, TVA, etc., all had percentages of the pie allocated to them.
It's my understanding that what this is really doing is suggesting that there is an ability for Shaw and Vidéotron to have a say on the board where the private funding goes. I don't have a problem with that, if that's what they wanted to do. But if we could amend Ms. Mourani's motion and add not only that CBC productions should get at least 37% of the total funding, but also that the same stable allocation of funding to other public broadcasters and educational programmers be maintained, then I think we will be sure that the two chunks of envelopes will stay the same. I would like to do that before we get the minister making decisions. The reason I would like to do that is that we have agreed on a lot of things—and I think in this committee we can agree and disagree—and are very well aware that there have been a significant number of people within the government ranks who did not like the Canadian television fund in the first place and voted against it.
So we want to be sure that we don't have to have the minister make a decision and speak about it, and then we start throwing rocks at the decision, and saying to her, change your mind, change your mind, we don't like it, we don't like it. We're saying that this is input from the beginning, so the minister is aware of how the committee feels, and when she's making her decision she will take that into consideration for all the political reasons she may need to do so.
Personally for me, as a political move, it gives the minister different room to manoeuvre, and at the same time, when she comes to our report she won't have everybody yelling and screaming at her, people who could have had some input beforehand for her to consider. I mean, if you really want to talk about how we could work together to get things done, I consider this a better way to do it than to throw bricks at her when she makes a decision that we may or may not like. We're just saying here's what we think.
So I would like to add to the amendment, if Ms. Mourani agrees to a friendly amendment, which perhaps some of us could look at and see what it says. I think we could maintain the same percentages allocated to other public broadcasters and educational programmers.