Mr. Speaker, newspapers can be a useful cross-reference. Let us consider three stories carried by the Globe and Mail on November 16, 1994. All three related to spending abuses, all three connected by real estate and all three about the CBC.
In one story Keith Spicer, president of the CRTC, asked for the CBC to be given breathing space from the continuous rounds of budget cuts. Then the editorials ran a letter from the CBC's vice-president of finance as he attempted to defend the expenses of the CBC's broadcasting centre.
It is amazing how creative accounting can actually justify a yearly rental cost of almost $50 million which will balloon to over $200 million in the next 10 years, all of it taxpayers' money.
The third story revolved around the changes to CBC "Midday". Will we indeed see that program co-hosted out of Vancouver? At what cost? What will happen to the current cosy and expensive "Midday" studio at the broadcast centre in Toronto? More redundancy, more excuses, more expenditure abuse.
Hats off to my handy reference guide. It made my day.