Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Lacroix.
I have a comment and a question.
My comment is that it seems to me that the English-speaking portion of CBC/Radio-Canada has done a pretty good job in the last number of years in meeting its mandate with respect to highlighting the diversity within Canada. As an avid CBC listener in the Toronto area, whether it be CBC radio or CBC TV, I've noticed in the last five or six years a substantive change in the face of the corporation and in the style of programming, which is good. I think it reflects the changing demographics in many parts of the country.
One area, though, in which I don't see a lot of presence on the English-speaking side of the corporation, in terms of its mandate, is the portion of the mandate that speaks to promoting the linguistic duality of the country. In reverse, I think the opposite is true for the French-speaking portion of Radio-Canada/CBC. It seems to me it is obviously meeting its mandate for highlighting the linguistic duality of the country, but in some respects it is not as aggressive or strong on the promotion of the ever-changing, ever-increasing diversity of our country.
I just make that as a comment.
What I want to focus on in terms of your views is that it seems to me you have many challenges in trying to meet your mandate as a corporation. You have the mandate to linguistic duality. You have the mandate to highlight the country's diversity. You have the mandate to promote a national sense of identity in this country. These are very difficult mandates to meet with limited resources. Obviously you don't have unlimited resources and you have to try to juggle these things around.
I noted in the recent committee report produced out of this committee that we fund your corporation about $33 per capita. Could you tell this committee how that number has fluctuated in the last number of decades in terms of the per capita amount, both in nominal and real terms? If you don't have that, obviously I understand. I'm just asking you right now, so if you don't have them, perhaps you could supply the committee with those numbers.
The second part of that question is could you tell us what other public broadcasters are doing around the world in terms of their funding per capita and how much money they receive to meet their respective mandates?