I am the Bloc Québécois heritage critic. I am not normally on this committee; I am on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
The cultural community in Quebec is very concerned about the threat that opening the telecommunications sector to foreign ownership poses to culture. A number of witnesses have told us that the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors will be one and the same in the future. Even though you may not want us to combine the two pieces of legislation, the fact remains that telecommunications stakeholders and companies are now involved in broadcasting. Even if they are only in telecommunications, companies that control access, control content, and content is culture.
We see that you are in majority Canadian-owned companies under the CRTC's rules and that you are not willing to make concessions for the cultural community. You do not want to pay the CRTC fees to encourage local production. You feel fettered by all the CRTC measures requiring Canadian or Quebec content to be shown during prime time.
So how can we expect companies with majority or extensive foreign ownership to agree to comply with measures aimed at protecting Canada's and Quebec's culture?