The definition given by the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission clearly states the following:
[A community station] is owned and controlled by a not-for-profit organization whose structure provides for membership, management, operation and programming primarily by members of the community at large.
That is certainly the reason why so many Canadians volunteer for and are so actively involved in the work of these community radio stations. On the other hand, it is very difficult for small organizations such as our own to train and supervise human resources and volunteers, while carrying out the rest of their mandate, without adequate and ongoing funding.
In practical terms, many stations do not have adequate resources to secure studio equipment, regularly renew their programming and production software, offer appropriate training and support for their volunteers or provide a quality local and regional news service.
Programming budgets in our area represent approximately 11.5% of the average revenues available to commercial FM stations in Canada. That is not enough to allow them to actively support citizen participation or to adequately fulfill their mandate. Because community radio stations are required to present diverse views and programming to residents and that they are, in that sense, a public service, we firmly believe they should have access to some form of public funding.
If Canadian society wants community radio stations to continue to provide effective coverage of local, community and social events, the kind of programming which neither CBC/Radio-Canada or private broadcasters can or will provide, unfortunately, as it is not part of their mandate, we believe that community radio stations will need to have the budgets they require in order to do so.