As always, Mr. Chair, merci beaucoup.
Good afternoon and welcome to all our witnesses. I am very pleased that you have been able to join us here today. I only wish that the circumstances could have been different.
I have a great deal of admiration and respect for the work that each of you do. I would have liked to be able to talk about dance, theatre, Quebec and Canadian success stories overall, and international touring, but instead, we have to talk about cuts. That is why you are here today—to talk about cuts that I, personally—I have said this before—describe as savage and unjustified, and which I am very upset about. They hurt our artists, and they hurt us as well, in terms of our international reputation.
To begin with, I would like to know whether any of you were consulted with respect to the review process and the cuts that were coming. Did you in any way participate in the process that led to these cuts?
No one was consulted.
Many of your competitors or competing countries—the international networks—have this type of support program, which often represents only a small portion of the budget. Do you not have the sense that, by virtue of the fact that you no longer have access to these programs, you will be fighting with your hands tied behind your back?