Yes, but.... The question is about the CBC.... This is not an evasion, but I'm trying set up the way in which we're thinking about funding for the CBC. Their request has always been--always--steady funding, stable funding, and predictable funding. The CBC's funding over years could be at different levels, but what they most want is a plan that they can embrace and have predictable funding for.
As you know, they have their plan for 2015. I've supported that plan, the 2015 plan. The three principle elements of the 2015 plan that I think need to be supported and embraced by Canadians are these.
One is the continued transition to digital technology, embracing digital technology, getting things.... As you know, as a French-speaking Canadian from British Columbia, I want to listen to CBC radio out of Drummondville. I want to know what's happening in Quebec City.
Without the CBC, there's no French-language radio in British Columbia. I have four nieces, all of whom are in French-immersion schooling. My sister is a French teacher in British Columbia: how do they get French content for the classroom so they can try to get kids thinking about how French is used in everyday life? It's through the CBC. So that component is essential. The way that you do that, going forward, is through digital technology. The digital component of the 2015 plan is essential and smart and, by the way, saves taxpayers millions of dollars.
The second component is making the CBC, from top to bottom, all-Canadian: Canadian producers, creators, screenwriters, actors, and performers have all wanted that. They want Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune off the air at CBC. The 2015 plan makes the CBC all-Canadian.
The third thing is the that CBC, in the 2015 plan, stays in the regions rather than having a massive footprint in downtown Toronto and Montreal and even a large footprint in Vancouver. It's to get out into the regions to connect Canadians and to stay in the regions. That's essential.
Those are the three central plans of the 2015 plan.
This is my roundabout way of getting to your point. The way we're thinking about it is that the CBC, through their board of directors, has approved their 2015 plan. This is a plan that we support and have been pushing for and hoping that the CBC would implement for a long time. It is: staying in regions; digital technology; and protecting their mandate to ensure that it's all-Canadian programming.
Those are the three things that we wanted the CBC to do. They've done it with their 2015 plan. Now that they have their 2015 plan, the question is, how much money do they need to implement that plan? And in the budget, they will have enough funding to deliver that plan.