Mr. Speaker, listening to this prolonged debate and looking at the eleven and a half pages of amendments in the Order Paper, I cannot help but think there must be a lot of disorganization in the background of this legislation. I wonder why the government does not go back to the drawing board and start out with something that makes sense to all concerned and the public can use.
However, we are now debating these amendments line by line. The question of the ephemeral exemptions is a particularly trying one in my riding. Although it is a vast area, probably about one-fifth the size of the province of Ontario, there are within that area only three radio stations, one cable outlet and one independent television station. They are all going to suffer from this legislation. Some of them are going to suffer so much that I am afraid they might be lost.
That does not make any difference to the government members or to their friends and accomplices on the separatist side who have been working hand in glove devising this legislation.
As a somewhat technical person, one of the things in this legislation that I find most offensive is the lack of any real exemption for the transfer of formats. Most smaller radio stations have fairly extensive libraries, some of them in two, three or even four formats. It is a dog's breakfast. It is that way because they cannot afford to make a massive conversion. Now we are going to tell them, when we pass this bill, that their libraries, unless they are willing to pay for the transfer of formats every time they take something off the shelf, have become basically useless.