Mr. Speaker, I will take every opportunity to speak and I appreciate being given this opportunity.
I would like to commend the member for Sarnia-Lambton for bringing this bill forward. It is important that the House pass the bill. In my respectful submission, the bill does not go far enough; nonetheless, it is deserving of support.
The bill is an amendment to the Broadcasting Act which clearly only applies in this particular case to cable companies. It seems to me what is needed is a bill that would ban this type of marketing or billing across the board at the federal level. Whatever is within federal jurisdiction, this type of billing or marketing should be prohibited.
It is clear that Canadians were very upset about what happened with the cable companies. The whole debate begs the question: should consumers have to pay for something they do not want or need?
The cable companies were arrogant and presumptuous in thinking they could foist upon consumers something consumers did not want. They would bill the consumers for it and if the consumers did not want it, they would take away something the consumers already had with respect to cable television.
I hope in the very near future that this whole debate will be rendered academic. It seems to me that with the pace of modern technology at some point in the very near future Canadians will be able to actually pay for the channels they want. If the technology exists today for pay TV, why should consumers have to buy a basket of channels as opposed to simply paying for the channels they want?
I will resume my comments when the bill is brought forward again.