For the most part, Canadians hear numbers like 1.1, 5.2, 3.6, whatever the number is, and then the fact of whether it's million or billion gets thrown out and we lose the idea of the significance of a number.
The CBC gets in excess of a billion dollars. If you started counting—one, two, three, four—it would take you 32 years to reach the number one billion. It's a lot of money. And there's a lot of responsibility that comes along with spending that much money.
One thing that really surprises me.... We've talked about how government resources are finite—they're not infinite—and that decisions have to be made. The government has made a number of decisions that I think are difficult but necessary, including the Department of National Defence. I understand you compared the CBC budget to fighter jets in your comments. Obviously we'll spend significantly more on the CBC than we will on fighter jets over the next 30 years.
We're providing this level of support, frankly, in a backdrop where I think you'd have to acknowledge that over-the-top and online media.... That's where young people are. I'm just curious. If we can acknowledge that's a lot of money, then why isn't the government being recognized, despite the fact that if it is faced with very difficult challenges, it's still going to provide in excess of $100 million a month to the CBC?