Thank you for the question, Mr. Waugh.
Through you, Chair, I would simply state that I couldn't agree with you more.
I did work for the CBC, and I am a fan of the CBC, but CBC has roundly abandoned local communities, moving to a model of regional distribution. CBC does remarkable work in and of itself, but they do not represent local communities.
Our stations, both television and radio, from a community standpoint, are based in communities, are not for profit, and when our DJs and news producers walk out the door of a station, they run into their listeners in the supermarket. It is a local connection that you cannot replace by parachuting a journalist from Winnipeg into Brandon, Dauphin or The Pas, or taking a journalist from Regina and moving them into Prince Albert. You're just not going to get the kind of coverage you would if you had local journalists in place in those areas.
That's why my position is simply that concentration does not support local journalism and that if, in fact, this deal is allowed to go forward, this committee very much needs to find ways to support local journalism. As Cathy said, community broadcasters really are the foundations. We've been there, and we will continue to be there to support these communities. How well we can do that depends on your support.