Mr. Speaker, Remstar would like to purchase TQS. As part of its demolition plan, the company announced its intention to dismiss 270 of its 479 full-time employees. In Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, 36 out of 40 jobs will disappear between now and the fall.
Closing the newsroom is a breach of the commitments the TQS network made to the CRTC. The sale of TQS should not come at any cost, and certainly not at the cost of eliminating regional news services. In Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean alone, TQS produces five programs that reflect our regional reality.
The Bloc Québécois is an ardent advocate of TQS services. Eliminating the newsroom would be a major blow to the diversity of information available to Quebeckers.
I hope that all political parties in the House will defend the interests of the Quebec nation before the CRTC.