Thank you very much.
I'm sure that you are aware, from covering the testimony, that we've had a number of different points of view. One of the interesting presenters was Mr. von Finckenstein, from the CRTC. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go into too much depth with some of Mr. von Finckenstein's testimony.
I've always maintained that if you are looking for a black hole of accountability in terms of transparency, look no further than the CRTC. They regularly deny every single access to information request that has anything to do with broadcast spending--anything to do with whether broadcast entities are meeting the conditions of their licences, questions about their local programming, whether they actually hire, or how many journalists they have. When we asked Mr. von Finckenstein why they just put a big black mark across any of these information requests, he said that he goes to the broadcasters, and if the broadcasters say that they're not giving it out, then that's it; none of it is given out.
It's a concern for me, because Canadians pay millions of dollars a year to help programming on private and public stations. Canadians, through government programs and conditions of licence, have given both the private broadcasters and the public broadcaster a market free from a lot competition by ensuring that we have the local programming improvement fund. We have section 6 and section 19.1 of the tax code. We've created an entire system to allow companies to do extremely well. Yet they can simply say no, they don't want the public to have any information on what they're actually spending and on whether they're meeting the conditions of their licences. We are aware that in some of them, such as in local programming, Quebecor just blanket says no.
What is CBC's response to giving that kind of information through the CRTC?