Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As you can gather, I'm not usually on this committee, so I haven't heard the testimony leading up to this. I do have a bit of a background from both sides. I worked at UBC for many years, and I have written a dozen or so books. I get my Access Copyright cheque every year. It's not a lot, but it's a nice surprise. It has been getting a lot smaller lately. I see that. I also have quite a number of authors living in my riding who have talked to me about this issue. A lot of them write fairly regional books on history and natural history that are used in schools. These people don't make a lot of money from their writing, so that Access Copyright cheque was actually a good chunk of their annual income. For me, it didn't really matter that much. I see the fairness issues on both sides.
Ms. Andrew, you mentioned that Access Copyright hadn't been able to show undue economic hardship on authors. I think that's what you were trying to say. I'm wondering what the economic hardship is on schools, colleges, and universities. We have statements here in the notes. For instance, Winnipeg School Division spends $34,000 a year on copyright materials, $1 per student. Ms. Marshall was talking about something a little bit higher.
I'm just wondering what you think would be fair and not causing hardship to school boards.