Madam Chair and committee members, thank you so much for this invitation to allow me to talk about this very important subject.
As was previously mentioned, my name is Brigitte Wellens. I'm the executive director of a community organization named Voice of English-speaking Québec, or VEQ, which was established in 1982. We're a not-for-profit community organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the interests of a dynamic English-speaking community in the greater Quebec City region.
An important point to note concerning our population is that every five years, 20% to 25% of our region's population is renewed by newcomers. Local media is not only a critical part of their integration process; it's at the heart of our community's vitality. Without it, communities experience a progressive erosion of their collective capacity to celebrate local stories and achievements, or to address issues and challenges that affect community members in their daily lives across the province of Quebec.
Our community represents only 2.3% of the greater Quebec City region, or just over 17,000 individuals in the local population. It's spread out over a very wide area, and there are no large concentrations of our population in one specific area of the region, so getting information to people in a timely manner in a way that's accessible to all is absolutely critical.
Funding should allow CBC to adequately resource local stations and allow them to be responsive to emerging news, stories, local events and activities in order to promote what's happening on the ground. We're a grassroots organization, and I believe that CBC should be a partner with us in promoting and improving community vitality in the regions across the province. It should also have the adequate resources to allow it, as a public broadcasting corporation, to be an active participant, alongside local stakeholders and community members, to have a positive impact on our community's vitality across the province.
In terms of representation and local voices, as the executive director of the organization for the past nine years and a board member for seven years prior to that, I've seen the constant decline of local resources. A lot of our content isn't recorded in Quebec City, and I've seen the decline in participation by local CBC staff in our events and our activities that bring together community members across our region.
It's critically important not only that we improve access to the content that's produced, but also that we improve the financial resources that the CBC has access to. We hear about things like defunding the CBC. On the contrary, I think that we should improve or increase the funding it has access to. When we compare it to the rest of broadcasters and news producers across the world, we're lacking in funding in terms of receiving 40% to 50% less than what other broadcasters and producers are receiving. Per capita, we should be looking at how much the CBC is actually getting in terms of listenership and viewership.
I can't say this enough. Our newcomers go to the source that is the most accessible for them. In Quebec City, that's CBC Radio One, but it gets peppered with little clips from other regions, because it is the only source for local news and content in the entire province of Quebec. I'm talking about six or seven hours per week. I would like to see an improvement and not a decline in these services and have them be more responsive on the ground in the local stories and news that are in the hearts of everyone in our community.
Thank you so much.