Thank you, Mr. Rajotte.
I think one could easily imagine a non-competing CBC. Of CBC's revenue, 33% is now drawn from private sponsorships and advertising. A 33% increase to CBC's budget could take them out of the compete market. They wouldn't be running advertising. The private broadcasters would be thrilled to death and you would still be providing a very modest budget support to CBC. It's about $35 per capita, per year, for this national broadcaster. That is one of the lowest in the world.
If you go to the U.K., if you go to Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, you're up in the area of $100 per capita. It costs money to support a public broadcaster. Virtually every nation in the world acknowledges the importance of that. If you were to want CBC to move out of competition with private broadcasters, that's a possible objective, but it would require extra funding in order to make up for that budget support that they now get from private sponsorship.
