Madam Speaker, I am tempted, as a response to the motion presented by the member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier, to remind the House of Canada's presence within the institutions of the international Francophonie, our participation in TV5 in particular, and of the benefits its presence has for Canadians.
The Francophonie is, first and foremost, the community of peoples who, to varying degrees, speak or use French in their national life or their international relations. It is also a group of organizations and associations, both governmental and non-governmental, involved in various sectors of interest to members of the francophone community, including culture.
Sensitive to its own francophone reality, Canada was one of the first countries to promote the Francophonie, by participating in particular in the creation and development of its many institutions. Thus it was one of the founding members of the Agence de Coopération culturelle et technique in 1970, which has since become the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie. I will come back a little later to TV5, which some consider one of the Francophonie's finest achievements.
Canada is now the second largest donor to the multilateral Francophonie, after France of course, while it pays out more than $25 million annually to the various operating bodies of the Francophonie, including TV5.
The Francophonie is one of the major focuses of Canada's foreign policy. Domestically, our participation is designed to promote our linguistic duality and to affirm and promote the vitality of the French fact in Canada. Internationally, the Francophonie is a natural zone of influence for Canada, just like the Commonwealth or the Organization of American States.
But beyond considerations of a geopolitical order, Canada's membership in the Francophonie is primarily an alliance with the rich network of 56 states and governments that have French in common, a network that extends from Europe, Africa and the Middle East to the West Indies, the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and of course our continent.
Finally, it gives the rest of the world a true appreciation of Canada's contribution to the dialogue among cultures and an opportunity to embrace the values of openness, democracy and tolerance, and to appreciate the richness of our francophone culture.
The year 2001 reminded us that it is up to the better-off on this planet to lend an ear and listen, but also to share our perceptions and our understanding of the reality that surrounds us.
The theme of the most recent Francophone Summit, held in Beirut last October, was the dialogue of cultures. I must tell hon. members how very proud I was to accompany the Prime Minister to Lebanon. The Minister of Canadian Heritage also attended, given her longstanding involvement with cultural dialogue.
During the Beirut summit, the heads of state and government affirmed their desire to breathe new life and new energy into the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, and to bring peoples closer together through mutual understanding.
They identified various tools and programs of the Francophonie to promote a closer relationship, be it by increasing Francophone cooperation in international forums on the great issues of the day, by participating in initiatives to prevent and settle conflicts, or by encouraging exchanges among young people throughout the Francophonie.
As I mentioned earlier, TV5, the international French language channel and operating body of the international Francophonie, is also one of the best vehicles for promoting dialogue among cultures.
Created in 1984, the international channel, TV5, is the fruit of a close partnership among five members of the Francophonie, the Government of Canada, France, Switzerland, the French community of Belgium and the Government of Quebec. TV5 also benefits from the participation of a number of African countries, namely Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
TV5 is now the third largest television network in the world, after MTV and CNN. The channel broadcasts 24 hours a day by cable and satellite on five continents. One hundred and thirty million households have access to TV5, which means a potential audience of almost 600 million viewers who can watch the best programming from the major public French language channels, including Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec.
The Government of Canada pursues two fundamental objectives by participating in TV5: helping to promote Canada on the international scene by offering Canada's Francophone artists and producers a special international showcase; and offering Canadians an additional French language channel and a window on the international community.
The Government of Canada has been involved for nearly 20 years in this multilateral undertaking that is unique in the world, and in 2002-03, the Government of Canada provided it with $8 million in funding.
In terms of content, TV5 is primarily a generalist channel in which information, in other words news, is the real backbone. In this respect, we should remember the outstanding contribution of Radio-Canada and RDI, which constantly feed TV5 news programming of the highest quality. These programs are broadcast all across the globe.
I want to take this opportunity to mention that the professionalism of Canadian journalists is greatly appreciated by the great TV5 family. Their reputation is firmly established. Canada thus makes an active contribution to ensuring that the news broadcast on TV5 is of high quality and reliable.
TV5 is also a well-respected undertaking around the world, where it is often the only alternative to local news sources. I am thinking of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, where TV5 is in turn educational, entertaining and informative.
For over 20 years, Canada has been helping to build a world television network that, over the years has, become a news broadcaster on par with CNN and the BBCs of this world.
Canadian and international news occupy an important place in RCIs programming. The channel also broadcasts programs on culture, economics and politics, thus offering the rest of the world an overview of the realities of Canadian life today.
I am particularly proud to talk about Radio Canada International because its transmitters are located in my riding, not far from the lovely town of Sackville.
From the Tantramar Marshes in New Brunswick, near the Nova Scotia border, people around the world can hear via shortwave signal Radio Canada International.
Given the success of TV5 and the Government of Canada's oft-renewed commitment to this operating body of the Francophonie, and given the existence of other Canadian tools already in place that broadcast quality French language news internationally, I believe that we should first focus our efforts on consolidating these tools. Of course, it would be interesting to envisage other vehicles for distributing our television programming, but at this stage, such a project is not realistic.