Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister and officials, for joining us here today. This is a very important discussion about the future of heritage in general in this country.
Minister, you said that our Canadian heritage plays a huge role in keeping our country together and building a stronger country. I believe that 100%. I'm always happy when we have CBC officials come in, because I ask them questions about things like their budget and how they're using their money. I also ask them about what they're doing for our culture, for independent thought media, and to support young people and children in this country. In Ontario, we have TVO, which is an incredible public broadcaster, as well as CBC. I'm a big supporter of both.
I want to ask you this: We see a lot more misinformation and disinformation. In fact, even at this committee today, I heard that constant narrative about viewership being down at CBC, but it was clear, when officials came in and talked about it, that it has grown in other areas. Maybe it was different traditionally—the way it was broadcast via cable and antenna—but the viewership has picked up on how we use CBC on our phones, on the Internet and with many different types of sources. In fact, every morning when I get up, and halfway through the day and in the evening, I go to CBC Listen and catch up on the latest news on demand. I'm a user, but I may not sit down at six o'clock to watch the news when it's put forward.
My question to you is this: With misinformation and disinformation taking place not only in Canada but also around the world, how does our public broadcaster play a role in combatting it, and what are your thoughts on how we move this even further in the future to combat some of these challenges?