Good afternoon. My name is Jean-Pierre Gariépy. I am Executive Director of the Documentary Network.
The Documentary Network aims to ensure that documentary plays its rightful role in the defence of democracy, tolerance and open-mindedness. It encourages speaking out and public debates sparked by films that tackle the issues, aspirations and values of society. The Network works to improve the conditions that enable documentary creation, production and distribution.
The Documentary Network has 14 associative members. I won't name them all. I will name the television networks that belong to our organization. They are Télé Astral, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Société Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec.
At the Documentary Network, we feel that the documentary genre is a perfectly natural ally in the development of local television. For technological reasons, documentary has always been ahead of its time. It is perfectly adapted to today's digital technology. It is an extremely accessible and economical genre for the majority of the public.
Now I'll address the issues you've raised in points a, b, c and d in your committee's mandate. That's why I've started with the first. The second point concerns financial pressures on local and Canadian programming.
The documentary genre is traditionally produced in an economical manner and so as to be locally accessible. It is a genre that is conducive to social cohesiveness in all Canadian communities. It enables people to know themselves and to talk to each other locally. Today's local television stations don't have access to enough production and direction funding. So if you defend documentary at the government level, if Canadians recognize documentary as a fundamental cultural genre—which is also recognized by the Canadian Television Fund but no longer by the Canada Media Fund—if it is defended to decision-makers and all bodies, we are convinced that local television will have a future that will be useful to the entire population.
Now I will introduce my colleague Sylvie Van Brabant, producer and director from Productions du Rapide-Blanc, who will continue the presentation. Thank you.