Thank you, Madam Chair.
Gentlemen, thank you for being here today for a second time.
I would also like to talk about the issues surrounding advertising that my colleague Mr. Nantel raised.
You know of course that our current study pertains to the media and local communities. I heard my colleague say that advertising revenues had skyrocketed. Congratulations, that is great news for you. Moreover, we also learned this past year that, in most communities, local media have seen a 50% drop in their advertising revenues, which is what yours have risen by. Advertising is the main revenue source for them as well, and they are now in a very precarious position.
You surely know as well that this generates a lot of jobs right across Canada. I don't have the figures, I don't know how many jobs exactly, but you mentioned 1,000 people at Google. We have not necessarily heard about the number of employees at Facebook, but I would guess there are easily tens of thousands in Canada in various local communities. Several witnesses over the past year have suggested that the Income Tax Act should be amended to favour the local media since these advertising revenues are going to American companies.
I would like to hear from each of you about these various suggestions that have been made to us by the majority of representatives from the media, unions, business and organizations that have appeared before us over the past year.