I find this a very good way to get my adrenalin going.
Monsieur Arthur, merci. That's a very fine question to challenge me with.
As an organization of performers, we do not expect the government to be a big brother. We would not want that. We are talking about our culture. We're talking about cultural identity. We are dealing with, unfortunately, neither.
You gave me two options: is the public not smart enough, or is our quality of work too low? There is another option, and it is what's in force right now.
Television is the breeding ground for filmmaking in all countries. Particularly in English-language countries, television is the breeding ground for filmmaking. Television is inundated in this country. The private broadcasters are inundated with American programming, and it's not an accident. It is because the product is dumped into this country, dumped because the private broadcasters can buy it cheaper than they could buy an hour of Canadian programming, because the American production has all its money made already south of the border.
So it virtually is dumped into Canada, and the private broadcasters then have simulcast rights, which allow them to sell advertising at high premiums. The revenue from advertising is very high because they get the spinoff from the programs being in the exact same time slot as it is in the border cities. It's called simulcasting. They have that protection, which is really not free market at all, and they are benefiting from it. Yes, we believe broadcasters should make money, but we do not want to see them only make money with Canadians having no choice to see English-language programming in prime time.