Mr. Speaker, recently CBC management announced that all of the CBC regional supper hour news programs will be cut back from one hour to half an hour. Here and Now in Newfoundland has a 64% market share. It has a viewing audience of 157,000 people. In comparison, in Toronto CBC's supper hour newscast has a market share of 2% and an audience of 36,000 people. The show with ratings closest to Here and Now is the one on Prince Edward Island with a 76% market share and 44,000 viewers.
Obviously the local CBC news shows in P.E.I. and Newfoundland are in a category all to themselves, and on their own merits they deserve not to be cut back.
It is time for the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Newfoundland Liberal MPs, who are taking very little interest in this subject, to show a little courage and tell the CBC that whatever they do in the rest of the country, Here & Now is here to stay.