Mr. Speaker, last year 125 employees at Radio Canada International were served notice that RCI was to be terminated 20 days from today, on March 31.
No specific provision for public funding of RCI is contained in the government spending estimates tabled last Thursday. The heritage minister is making noises about continuing RCI but has given no indication that she is prepared to look at alternative funding through commercialization.
The minister is seeking out Canadian business financial support for her flag program. Why can the minister not use these contacts to seek support for RCI? She should give the employees a chance to prove that RCI is a viable enterprise that can sustain itself on corporate advertising. If the government is so confident in the private sector's ability to create jobs, let us see it happen.
I challenge the heritage minister to announce today that she is seeking advice and corporate support for the privatization of RCI rather than the traditional tax and spend Liberal approach that has driven the country to its knees.
By the way, speaking of people on their knees, when is she going to tell the RCI employees whether or not they have a job on April 1?