Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Bernier, in 2006 our government was given a mandate to provide a greater accountability for taxpayers' dollars. We had to set up a framework of transparency and accountability for corporations and give the Auditor General the ability to follow the money.
You made the statement that there was an avalanche of ATIs regarding CBC. I would suggest that if CBC had been open and transparent right from day one, there wouldn't be that avalanche. This has been pent up for some time. People have wondered just where the money is going, the $1.1 billion that CBC receives.
One of the things that is a little disturbing in a little of your testimony here is that you said it wasn't necessarily ethical that the committee be looking into this sort of attack on CBC. I would like to bring to your attention your attack on Quebecor. You've questioned their journalistic independence. You've made statements that they didn't allow that, and yet I've said there are always influences. Even CBC probably has some sort of influence on some of the journalism that is done for CBC.