Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the suggestions of the hon. member. However I think there is a consensus in the country that the CBC has to change.
The hon. member mentioned CBC Newsworld and how efficient it is. Within a year of applying for and getting its licence the CBC had to come back and ask for higher subscriber fees because it could not make it on what it was bringing in. Despite the fact it said it would not do so, the CBC came back and did exactly that. I would suggest that in terms of efficiency the CBC obviously did not look very far ahead.
When it comes to bringing the country together I very much appreciate what the CBC has done in the past with respect to that, but I point out that many private sector broadcasters do the same sorts of things. The CTV network brings the country together through its programming. It provides all kinds of programming that people across the county appreciate, not the least of which is its news and public affairs programming.
I point to the new specialty channel applications, for instance the proposed Bravo channel that would bring Canadian arts programming to the entire country at a much lower cost to subscribers than the CBC application. There are other ways of looking at it. There are other ways of bringing the country together that may not involve the CBC, or it may involve the CBC but a drastically reformed CBC.
Since 1987 there has been a decline in arts and children's programming on CBC. We have seen all kinds of soap operas in the afternoon and sitcoms in the evening in an attempt to bring back viewers. That is redundant. That is ridiculous actually, when we think about it. CBC receives $1.1 billion to provide Canadian programming and we have these American sitcoms coming in on all kinds of other channels. I do not think it is the role of the CBC to be replaying American sitcoms. We have to get away from that. The CBC has to change.
With respect to the hon. member, I think he is out of the loop if he does not recognize that the CBC has to change. I am not arguing that it should disappear, but it has to change. The friends of the CBC even point that out. It is time to bring some change to the CBC to try to make it more efficient and to respect the fact there are new forces in the country that will allow us to come together. We do not necessarily have to do it through the state sanctioned CBC.