Madam Speaker, I also stand to support the legislation, particularly because of its importance to the smaller, more rural regions of our country.
I was a bit shocked to listen to the member for Elk Island ask all of us to vote against the legislation because a review of the Broadcasting Act is presently underway and we would be infringing on the openness of presentations to the committee that will be holding the hearings.
However, I feel entirely different because the hearings on the Broadcasting Act are just commencing. The committee has not gone out from this area yet to hear any witnesses, although I understand some witnesses may have made presentations here in Ottawa. Over the next few weeks, months and years perhaps, the committee will move around the country to hear the views of people who are concerned with the Broadcasting Act. There are a lot of concerns about what is happening in relation to broadcasting in this country.
Many of the groups and individuals who would like to present to the committee as it goes forth will not be able to do so because of the costs involved. If we pass legislation now and the results are implemented, then perhaps the funding would be available to individuals or groups who want to make presentations next month, next year or whatever the case might be, depending upon the length of the hearings. I would think they the presentations will be extremely long and extensive because of the importance of the review itself. The act has not been reviewed for several years and we have had many changes in the broadcasting field.
If we were discussing the Telecommunications Act, the costs of making a presentation by anyone designated as an intervener are covered. However, because it is the Broadcasting Act, for some reason it is not looked upon as being important and those people wishing to intervene are left entirely on their own.
I would suggest that the Broadcasting Act perhaps has a lot more relevance in the rural, smaller areas of this country than it has in larger regions. Throughout the country we have a tremendous amount of people who get knowledge solely through one or two radio stations. I am thinking of CBC in particular.
If we look at what is happening to CBC, it is extremely scary. As an agency funded to be the national mosaic, to weld the fabric of the country together, to be the voice of and to the people, we have to say that it has failed miserably because its direction seems to concentrate on the larger areas and cut programming and opportunities from local areas. Certainly in our own province of Newfoundland, the contributions of CBC programming today compared to five or ten years ago are almost insignificant, to the point where the ratings for this publicly funded station have almost dropped off the board entirely.
Some might say that there is nothing wrong with that, that is what competition is all about and that the private sector should step in. I have no problem with that. However, it is very difficult to encourage or, in some cases, to even expect the private sector to deliver programming to small, rural regions where it is just too expensive to maintain proper operations. That is where the Canadian broadcasting system is supposed to step in.
As all of this is unfolding, more and more concerns are being raised across the country. The concentration of media in the hands of a few is becoming a major concern.