Mr. Godin, I will give you a few examples. After the sponsorship's scandal, Radio Fredericton, in New Brunswick, experienced a significant reduction in its federal sponsorships. It has been struggling ever since. That radio station almost closed its doors at least twice. Members of Parliament from New Brunswick were made aware of this problem, especially Mr. Scott, the member for Fredericton.
We feel the problem is quite complex. There appears to be money; $71 million has been mentioned. In my opinion, there should be more. However, federal organizations are not even spending what is available. That is rather surprising. We are trying to understand why. Perhaps it is because of the monitoring mechanisms. I don't know very many departments that do not spend all their program money.
The auditor general said that there had to be an end to the sponsorships' scandal and that the government had to get its house in order, but she did not suggest that we kill the goose with the golden eggs. I think that currently we're strangling that goose. As I mentioned, I believe in accountability and in auditing. However we have to be reasonable. I think it would be interesting to request — you can do this but we can't — a study that would consider the costs associated with this process, that is, how much is spent, and why it is that, in the end, there is $71 million available. Thirty one million dollars has been spent and $20 to $25 million are spent on an audit.
I think that some serious questions have to be asked. We need auditing and we need to avoid scandals, but we cannot suffocate development and initiative. That is my first response to your question. We need more money for government advertising and rules that will ensure that the money can be spent. That will have an impact.
Five hundred thousand dollars is a modest amount; obviously we can ask for more. However, it should be clear that community radio stations do not want to restrict themselves to one source of funding alone. I think it is important to protect the independence of radio stations. You mentioned volunteers. If you were to quantify, in dollars, all the work carried out by volunteers in community radio stations throughout the country, you would be talking about millions of dollars. The volunteers are there, that does not pose a problem. Depending on their market, the radio stations that can, will obtain advertising income. We did it in your riding and in others.
However there are many other small radio stations that cannot pay for BBM surveys. Why is that? BBM surveys are only carried out in English in anglophone markets. In Montreal, there are surveys in English and in French but that is all. There are no BBM surveys undertaken within francophone markets outside Quebec. That is the reality. The small radio stations do not count. That is why there have to be other sources of funding. We think that government advertising is a good source of funding but it should not be the only source. The ingredients for the best recipe for community radio stations are volunteers, federal government advertising, bingo and fundraising campaigns.