Mr. Speaker, the heritage minister is both dead right and dead wrong.
She was dead right yesterday in her unprecedented attack on the health minister concerning the SARS file. She correctly observed that the health minister was absent. We also note that as a result of the health minister's inaction, Toronto and Canada have a terrible black eye.
However the heritage minister is dead wrong in her position on foreign ownership of telecommunications and broadcasters. The Liberal industry committee chairman correctly observed that the foreign ownership restriction should be dropped. My Canadian Alliance colleague stated it more clearly: “It is time to take off the shackles”.
If Canadians believe that content restriction should apply to what people can view in their living rooms, this can be accomplished through regulation of broadcast distribution and broadcasters. Ownership has nothing to do with it.
The heritage minister is living in the past when the CBC was the only on-air broadcaster available in living rooms. When is she going to wake up to the fact that we live in a world of digital communications?