It isn't so much that I have views as to whether the CBC should be excluded. My principal concerns are with the extremely artificial circumstances under which the proposed negotiations take place.
The principal danger is that small and local newspapers or news organizations will be left in the wake of negotiations taking place on the part of the large majors—Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, etc.—that have enough resources to be able to pay for the kind of expert studies we're talking about.
The second- and third-level players in the news business don't have that kind of capacity. That's one of the reasons this bargaining process favours the large organizations over the small. I don't think that the bill as crafted will substantially alleviate the situation of community newspapers and regional newspapers.