Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Canadian Heritage I am pleased to respond to the question raised by the member for Rimouski-Témiscouata on the appointment of the new president of the CBC.
As the minister said, the selection process for the new president of the CBC was very transparent. On November 13, 1993, a call for candidacies was printed in The Canada Gazette, and all interested candidates had the opportunity to apply for the position. Also, many people were consulted on this issue.
The CBC needed someone with experience who knew the nuts and bolts of this institution and was ready to go into action immediately. Mr. Manera is such a person. He has been working for the corporation since 1985, holding the positions of senior vice-president, Resources and Administration, and more recently, acting president.
The appointment of the new president comes with a series of measures the government has undertaken to allow the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to assume its own destiny, one of the commitments the Liberals included in the red book.
The appointment of Mr. Manera and the series of measures announced will assist the CBC in reinforcing its role as public broadcaster and as a national institution serving the Canadian public.
Of all our cultural institutions, the CBC is undoubtedly the one which plays the most significant role in defining our national identity.
The broadcasting industry is undergoing massive changes, and it was imperative that we appoint a president capable of dealing with the financial problems of the Corporation and of reasserting loud and clear the role of the CBC as a public broadcaster serving the Canadian public. That is exactly what we have done, and an announcement on this issue was made this morning.