Thank you.
Ms. Bouchard, it's a pleasure to finally have you at our committee. If your stewardship of CBC/Radio-Canada is anything like Ms. Tait's, I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next period of time.
I urge you to do better than what's been done before. With a Conservative Party that is ideologically committed to destroying the CBC and a Liberal Party that may say the right things but whose threat of cuts cost so many people at the CBC their jobs in the first place, Canadians are depending on you to do better.
That means investing in local journalism outside the major cities in our country to end media deserts. People in communities like mine, here in Thompson, have had a CBC station that's been shuttered for years, with the exception of blips of short-term contracts. Our regions deserve our stories to be told by people who are living in regions like ours.
That means that if there's a choice between saving jobs or doling out bonuses to the top of the CBC, which are almost twice as big as the salaries of the lowest-paid workers at the CBC, CBC leadership decides to save the jobs.
That means fighting for investments for our national broadcasters so that francophone communities and indigenous peoples can learn what's happening in their communities, in their regions and in their own languages.
Unlike the Liberals and Conservatives, I truly believe that Canadians support the CBC. What they need from you is a CBC that supports them.
Do you think Ms. Tait was wrong to give out $18 million in executive bonuses while cutting CBC workers' jobs?