Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. CBC's corporate plan states “to be national one must first be regional”. Yet today English regional television is being gutted: in Nova Scotia, 220 staff reduced to 145; in New Brunswick, 48 to 9; P.E.I., 36 to 6; Newfoundland, 85 down to 35; Hear and Now , Newfoundland's highly successful local news program, gone.
Why has the government abandoned its commitment to build a strong national broadcaster by building on strong regional programming?