I would like to thank our guests for being here.
You mentioned the situation you find yourself in with Radio-Canada in Saskatchewan--that you're listening to traffic reports about Montreal. It's the same thing in Ontario with English-language radio. I can tell you that Radio One in Toronto covers a broad geographic area, so farmers living in the north part of Waterloo region in Wellington County, which is hours away from Toronto, hear traffic reports about street cars being blocked at Queen and Broadview.
So this is not unique to Radio-Canada on the prairies; it's across the corporation.
With respect to funding, I know that some new procedures have been introduced to make it easier for organizations seeking funding for their programming. One of the things they can do, for example, is request funding on a multi-year basis.
Is funding being distributed in all parts of the country in such a way as to guarantee the long-term viability of the country's official language communities?
I ask this question because our analyst, Jean-Rodrigue Paré, has prepared some research for us. I note that the breakdown of the funding across the country is not exactly consistent with the distribution of language minority populations in Canada.
For example, in Ontario, community groups receive about $4 million, yet Ontario has over 500,000 francophones. Across all of the prairies, community groups receive about $10 million, yet there are only about 200,000 francophones. In the Maritimes, community groups receive about $5 million, yet there are only about 300,000 francophones. In Quebec, the anglophone community groups receive about $3 million, when there are over one million anglophones in that province.
Do you think the distribution of funds across the country is done in a way that ensures sufficient support for minority language communities in all regions, including Ontario and Quebec?