Thank you for your question. We would like to have the same advantage as Quebec artists have.
In Quebec, there no competition for an audience with the American elephant that is beamed across the border.
Do we see a solution? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? We believe so. We are very optimistic. First of all, some of this is reliant on the public broadcaster. We believe that the CBC, in both languages, must have stable and continuing funding.
What we do not believe is that private conventional broadcasters should look upon the obligation to have Canadian content as some kind of taxation or a cost of doing business or a penalty of some sort. It is not. It is in the Broadcasting Act. It is in Canada's Broadcasting Act, an act of Canada, that they have an obligation to champion Canadian culture en français et en anglais. It is absolutely required of them.
Also, we do not buy their arguments that their profit margins have dropped because of Canadian content. We think that is a load of something that is not acceptable in this room. They have created their own difficulties with their massive expenditure on foreign programming and their massive acquisitions, which have acquired them so much debt that they can't handle it.
So yes, we look for regulations, we look for the CRTC to impose these regulations, and we look for this committee to make some recommendations to that effect. We're not looking for handouts to the industry.
Merci.