I definitely understand my colleague Mr. Shields' concern. I understand that smaller undertakings that wish to explore and take advantage of our market might be impeded by the regulations we put in place. However, we nevertheless have to consider the specific characteristics of our country, in both the Canadian and Quebec contexts. Of course, I'm far more inclined to want to protect the French fact because that's the culture I live in every day. However, there are also the specific characteristics of Canadian culture. It's not just the francophone aspect; it's the anglophone aspect as well. We have a kind of tradition and a responsibility to protect it in our broadcasting market.
We introduce regulations that may not be that attractive or appealing to the smallest undertakings, for which compliance with these regulations may be a heavier administrative burden. However, the fact remains that we introduce them precisely in order to protect our culture here at home, in Quebec and Canada, and to promote the content our creators and artists generate.
We've also voted in favour of some of these amendments for that purpose, to require that broadcasting undertakings submit to certain practices, including discoverability and the promotion of francophone and Canadian content, as well as indigenous languages. We all agree on that. The obligations we've established may be even harder to meet for these smaller undertakings you refer to, which would like to relocate from foreign countries and carry on their undertakings in Canada. However, when they agree to take up that challenge, to come here and enrich us with their content and to introduce their clientele to ours, they also have to show how they intend to comply with our regulations.
I don't see that as a major obstacle at this point. Our system's already quite regulated. It's very different from that of the United States, for example, which may need less protection for its cultural identity. I think that's understood and accepted. There are countries like that elsewhere in the world as well.
As you say, large undertakings may be better equipped to comply with information confidentiality. Small undertakings nevertheless have ways to justify why they might need to keep certain information confidential. They have ways of preserving their information and trade secrets and of retaining their competitive advantages.
I don't think these requirements impose an undue burden, quite the contrary. They are part and parcel of the overall conditions that encourage undertakings to come and do business in Canada, take advantage of our market and provide us with their goods and services.
The idea here is simply to provide the CRTC with the necessary tools to ensure compliance with what we've already asked undertakings to do. These are merely tools that we are adding to the toolbox.