Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lafrance, I'd like to begin by thanking you for your presentation.
I also want to say, on behalf of people in the Maritimes, New Brunswick, Moncton, and Acadians, that we are delighted that Radio-Canada is active regionally, both in New Brunswick and the other regions.
I have a couple of comments, and then I'll have a few questions.
Mr. Lafrance mentioned that services are being reorganized. We are a little concerned about that, because in the past, there have been some bad times in terms of regional and local service.
As you know, in my riding of Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, the only major Radio-Canada bureau is there to provide television programming. As you yourself pointed out, there are three main shows: Le téléjournal/Atlantique at 12 p.m., Le téléjournal/Atlantique at 6 p.m., and special shows such as coverage of the Acadian Games, masses, the August 15th national holiday, and so on.
This is important programming for our community--we all agree on that. However, local programming is often interrupted to present newscasts that are not particularly important to the people of our region. Let me give you a couple of specific examples. On January 16 of this year, notaries in Quebec gave a live news conference. Then on January 18, there was coverage of a live news conference given by the Leader of the Parti Québécois. On January 20, there was coverage of the City of Montreal's budget. These are things that are very important to people living in Quebec; I understand that. However, for people in my region, they aren't important enough to interrupt local coverage. I just want you to know that regional news shows are very important to people living in the regions.
When you talk about a new face for Radio-Canada or a new level of service, I do hope you're not talking about job losses in the Atlantic region. I hope that you can provide assurances that there will be no cutbacks affecting newscasts in the Atlantic provinces.
Finally, if you can, I would like to receive some assurance from you that air time for regional news will not be cut back. I know I'm also speaking for my colleagues from Manitoba and other regions of Canada. Can you give me that assurance? That would assuage concerns I've had since hearing that Radio-Canada intends to reorganize services. We know that under similar circumstances in the past, there have been job losses in Moncton.
Thank you.