Ms. Dinsmore, you can see what a logical mind my colleague Mr. Shields has when he asked you how you could suggest that someone else forego some of their profits while your company is unwilling to do so. You know how much I respect you for your expertise and professionalism, but I think some of our witnesses are getting lost at times.
This is an era with less money in the system, or rather the ecosystem, as the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister Rodriguez's predecessor, said. She was right. Things have not been going that well for about 10 years, but before that we worked together very well. For 50 years, creators developed the content that you broadcast, which gave you an audience, and money flowed back to the creators. The formula worked well. Now, on the other hand, you agree that publishers and record companies are perhaps taking a bit too much. For their part, artists are complaining that radio stations are raking in huge profits and want them to forego the exemption from paying royalties on the first $1.25 million in advertising revenues. We are now fighting amongst ourselves.
I will speak in English to make sure that we understand each other.
We're having a family discussion here and we're blaming everyone: “You shouldn't do that” and “I did this for you 20 years ago” and “Why do you still do that?” and “You keep all the money and the creators are dying.”
All that is nice. It's a family supper and we can discuss it, but the reality is that the money is leaving the country. The reality is that we are not in charge, not in control anymore. It is good business for telecoms, although not for the media side.
I understand when you say that you buy productions. You're talking about Bell Media probably losing money, and I'm sorry for Sandie Rinaldo. I'm sorry for everyone in the news business, but you guys, you wireless guys, you Internet mobile appliance suppliers, you are contributing to the invasion. You are the passers of all this new system coming out.
I see here both of your presentations, and I appreciate the fact that they're translated. The one that was submitted to the CRTC was all in English, I remember. It was 11 pages on such a broad topic. That was not very generous from BCE.
You are saying now that Bell would like to help protect the economic component that supports our cultural industries.
In 1995, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, created the Cable Production Fund, a funding initiative designed to facilitate the production and broadcast of high-quality Canadian television programs in under-represented categories in peak viewing periods.
Wasn't the idea behind the Canada Media Fund—a perfect example—and of quotas to ensure that cable distributors help fund the creation of Canadian content to be broadcast on our screens? It seems you are abandoning that principle now. Is that true?