Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Moore. Thank you for joining us. We are very pleased. This meeting is a highlight of our session. I would also like to say hello to Mr. Jean and Mr. Bouchard, whom we saw yesterday.
I would like to begin by complimenting you on your skating skills. You are a very good skater, and you must work very hard on the presentation of your work. In Quebec, people took note of your appearance on Tout le monde en parle, where you said you were a friend of the arts community. I think I know how important it is for you to appear sincere on that issue. You said that several of your colleagues are clamouring for you to go after CBC. That is fairly clear. You said that on the air.
At times, this approach can become a bit delicate because it may have a domino effect, as we say. Clearly, your verbal support for the arts is one thing, but it does not take away from the fact that huge cuts have been made at CBC, and they have an enormous impact. Various shows may be cancelled. There will be 13 episodes instead of 12. All sorts of cuts will be made, and Radio 2 will have to run advertisements.
How do you explain claiming to be a government that has done the most for artists when, clearly, significant cuts like these have been made? How can you say that this is a priority for you and go ahead with such cuts?