Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. We are pleased to welcome you here today.
I have a single question to ask you. This may help you, Madam Chair, to manage the time allocated to other members of the committee who want to ask questions.
As of September 2017, as you know, independent local television stations will have access to the Independent Local News Fund to help them produce local news. The CRTC expects the budget for this fund to be $23 million.
Recently, at this committee, we met representatives of Télé Inter-Rives who stated that this sum would be insufficient for them in the future. We could have put the same question to other television stations or organizations of that type and I am convinced that they would have given us the same answer.
Do you have any comments to make on this? Most of all, what is your response to this important statement by Télé Inter-Rives representatives about local television?