Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl and also the member for New Brunswick Southwest. I will speak for about 10 minutes, my friend from New Brunswick will take about 4.5 minutes and my friend from St. John's will finish up.
I want to thank the minister for being here tonight, not that she had much choice. However, we are glad that she is here to answer some questions.
I want to say off the top that the Conservative Party of Canada takes the issue of Canadian culture and heritage very seriously. As a party with the name “conservative” in it, obviously that says something about our values. We want to conserve the best of Canadian culture and find ways to do that.
We recognize that the Department of Canadian Heritage has limited resources. When one only has so much money, one has to ensure that it goes to the things that do the most good. One of my questions has to do with CBC Television. It is a long-standing issue for me as someone who comes from a broadcast background,
I recall a number of years ago when a CRTC commissioner at the time, Keith Spicer, really raked English language TV over the coals because the viewership continued to fall. I think the term he used was that the viewership has fallen like a stone. That was never reflected in any way in the amount of money that went to the CBC at the time. I am concerned that we are not getting value for money when it comes to English language TV. I am not talking about Newsworld , or radio or RDI. I am talking about English language TV.
I wonder if the minister shares my concern. We see hundreds of millions of dollars going into English language television, but the ratings continue to flounder, certainly compared to CTV and some of the other private networks. This should be of concern, given that the Auditor General has told us time after time that expenditures should be tied to clear, measurable objectives. Is she concerned that we are not getting value for money, given how much money we have put into English language television and how weak its ratings are?