Thank you, Madam Chair.
Earlier, Mr. Gonez said that the measures were put in place to save a dying industry on its last legs. I just wanted to correct that. Radio, television and traditional media cannot be described as a dying industry at all. Radio and television are still the preferred media for Quebeckers and Canadians.
I think it's more that the industry has been crushed by regulations from another era at a time when it was being invaded by digital media, which was not regulated in time.
I remember back in the early 2000s, when we were talking about regulating platforms, new players in the music broadcasting industry. At the time, the CRTC said they didn't see a day when we were going to watch news on our phones. We had no kind of vision of what the technology was going to become.
If we had regulated this industry on time, the world in which digital companies and new players operate today would probably be regulated. They would have had access to that world in a regulated environment rather than in the wild west that was created by a lack of regulation. It's a bit like saying that there could never be flying cars, and then when flying cars arrive, we let them zoom around in the sky and crash all over the place without any regulations because we claim we didn't see it coming. I think this lack of vision is reflected in a number of broadcasting decisions made by successive governments, and I find that quite worrisome.
Particularly since the measures you are proposing are easy to implement. Extending the tax credit to radio and television stations, particularly newsrooms, is an easy measure to implement. We don't need to vote on a bill for that.
When it comes to buying advertising on traditional media, we're not talking about stopping advertising investment or purchases on the platforms. We know that it's 2026 and that it's part of today's reality. Devoting a portion of an advertising budget to traditional media is not hard to do.
Furthermore, in terms of the programs in place, the media have to reapply year after year, whereas it would be preferable to have a little predictability and spread the programs out over two, three, even five years in some cases. These are not hard things to do.
I find it hard to understand why this government is letting radio stations die. The loss will be felt in the regions first, where it hurts the most. Montreal is not the place where news will stop airing first. It will be in Chibougamau or in the regions served by the Groupe Radio Simard. It will be small regional TV and radio stations. That's where it's going to hurt the most. I don't understand this inaction.
Some programs work well. The Independent Local News Fund, which we were talking about earlier, works well. The local journalism initiative for regional weeklies works well.
We want predictability, we want commitment and we want to save this industry.
This has to be said. It's so easy to put measures in place that I can't explain why it hasn't been done for such a long time.
Since I only had two and a half minutes of speaking time, I won't ask you any questions right away. I'll come back to this later.
Thank you, Madam Chair.