Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Michèle Fortin, Vice-President for Television, at Radio-Canada, spoke to the metropolitan Montreal Board of Trade. Some of her remarks echoed concerns of the Bloc Quebecois about broad, varied and accessible television programming. In addition, she reiterated her warning about the cuts to Radio-Canada announced in the budget. She noted that the SRC is of vital importance to francophones in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, having a much greater impact on its audiences than the CBC does on anglophone audiences.
Now that Mr. Beatty is ready to implement the budget cuts, it is essential that he not lose sight, in making his decisions, of the performance of French television and of the success it enjoys with its audiences. Draconian cuts to the French network will jeopardize the growth and development of our culture.