But it's hard to predict, as you say. And yet the government advances the opposite reasoning today in refusing to make a loan to the CBC. It says that if it granted it a loan, since the experts say advertising revenues will fall, the CBC will never be able to make it and would never be able to repay its debt. Do you understand?
I share your view. I don't see how the government can suddenly make that guess, that advertising revenues will decline after the crisis and that we have to let the CBC cut itself up and axe services. Ultimately, I personally think that suits the government.
My other question concerns regional content. You say that content from the regions is important, and it is. It's very important, even more so in light of the cuts to the CBC announced today. I was listening to one of my colleagues on the Standing Committee on Official Languages who said that, in his corner of the country, it's a major problem if there's no regional news. I was recently watching television back home and they interrupted the news to say that a water main had burst in Montreal. They don't care about that in Edmundston or Bathurst.
What is the CRTC's actual power, or lack thereof, to maintain not only a local presence but also local content?