Mr. Speaker, I would like to give the hon. member some information that might be helpful.
Let us be clear about the landscape of the broadcasting industry. These commercial regulations provide private broadcasters with the right to substitute U.S. content, and they bring between $270 million to $330 million. Provincial and federal government subsidies, such as tax credits, and the Canadian Television Fund add another $165 million in cash supports to private broadcasters.
We all know our media industry could not exist without the subsidy. Private companies compete for public money and the CBC competes for advertising dollars. The difference is that the CBC has a mandate to tell Canadian stories and spending on Canadian programming is more than all the private broadcasters combined.
CBC television is being viewed by 30% more Canadians today than just three years ago, so it has the number one news and information website in Canada. I can tell members that because of the subsidies and the funding to the CBC--