Thank you, Mr. Simms.
At the licence renewal hearings, TVA Group/Quebecor Media recently proposed to cut its local programming hours in its regional broadcasts. This currently totals 21 hours, and these people were proposing to reduce that figure to 18. I think that would be a fundamental mistake. Maintaining quotas is not based on pointless reasons. With respect to the business objectives of these major conglomerates, this isn't a thorn in the foot or a spanner in the works. Its purpose is to ensure that Canadians have access to their artists, to productions and to the voices they are used to hearing.
Maintaining professional production is always a challenge, but maintaining a professional level presupposes a consistency in production. Everybody sings, but not everyone is a singer. To be a virtuoso in that field, you have to practise singing. For artists and crafts people who design and create television programming and film, it's exactly the same thing.