Thank you, Mr. Julian.
I completely agree with what Mr. Saulnier just said.
I have some statistics in connection with the last question.
Between 2016 and 2020, contributions to the Canada Media Fund and other such funds dropped from $431 million to $397 million. Canadian programming expenditures declined by 6.7% for conventional services and 9.3% for discretionary and on‑demand services. It is clear that more people now subscribe to online services than to conventional cable or satellite television services.
The transition is quite advanced. The funding needed to support the continued creation and production of oh‑so‑important Canadian content is dwindling. It's about more than just jobs or the economy. It's about people being able to see themselves reflected on screen.
Our cultural sovereignty matters because it contributes to shared values and a collective identity that means something. It's not about cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world. It's about making sure a diversity of cultures and identities continue to exist in the world, as opposed to one homogenized culture where everyone thinks exactly the same way.
It is vitally important to implement policies that encourage diversity and create a place for stories that showcase the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, for instance. That is fundamental. The market may see no reason for doing that, but the values represented by openness and the need for tolerance are the reasons.
Having a cultural policy is essential if we want the content available to us and what we teach our children to reflect what we aspire to be as a society.