Mr. Speaker, Radio-Canada television receives approximately half the funding of its English-language counterpart, the CBC.
At a session of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, the Liberal member for Simcoe--Grey stated that he found it normal for francophones to get half the public funding that anglophones do.
Is not one of the objectives of the Broadcasting Act the respect of both of Canada's official languages? And was not a motion stating that the House of Commons must be guided by the principle that Quebec forms a distinct society passed by the members of this government? Fine talk with no substance.
Consideration of francophones solely according to their numerical representation, treating them as a minority rather than an equal nation, is intensifying their assimilation and cultural impoverishment. Why should francophones have to settle for half the funding to produce programming? English Canada's parliamentarians would appear to need a major change in attitude.