Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this adjournment debate in order to revisit a question I asked in this House concerning CBC/Radio-Canada.
On May 24, 2009, I talked about the fact that CBC/Radio-Canada might be forced to sell assets. At that time, I was speaking in the conditional, but we now know that this is the sad reality: CBC/Radio-Canada is being forced to sell some assets and lay people off. At the time, we did not know how many and there was talk of anywhere from 600 to 1,200 employees. We now know that 800 people will lose their jobs in Quebec and Canada. Furthermore, 3,200 people will be indirectly affected and will also lose their jobs.
We were waiting to hear the announcement from the president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Hubert Lacroix. He later announced the measures he had to take to deal with the $171 million deficit projected for this year. He wanted to meet his financial obligations and, as I said at the time, all this was happening under the disinterested watch of this government, a government that was planning, and still plans, to help the private sector for ideological reasons, but chooses to close the door on CBC/Radio-Canada.
We have known for a long time that the Conservatives want to shut down the corporation. In fact, when someone was talking about the disappearance of CBC/Radio-Canada in this House, dozens of Conservative members even applauded. Since we have been denouncing their actions they no longer applaud, but that happened right before our eyes in this House. The Conservative members applauded the fact that CBC/Radio-Canada could disappear.
I would now like to talk about the minister's response, because it was completely unsatisfactory. First of all, some of the things the minister said were false. He said that in 2005-06, the Conservatives increased CBC/Radio-Canada's budget, and that the Bloc Québécois voted against it. He does not know his history, not at all, because on May 10, 2006, the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of the government's budget.
He went on to say that in 2006-07, they again increased CBC/Radio-Canada's budget, and that the Bloc Québécois voted against it. Once again, I must say that on March 27, 2007, the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of the budget. He said two things that were false, to say the least.
He went on to say that in 2008-09, they had increased CBC/Radio-Canada's budget, but that the Bloc Québécois had voted against that. First of all, it is not true that they increased the corporation's budget. The budget for CBC/Radio-Canada stayed exactly the same. Obviously, the Bloc Québécois voted against the fact that the CBC/Radio-Canada budget had not been increased and that the government had done nothing to remedy the situation. In addition, this government had just cut $26 million from arts and culture grant programs. That is another reason why the Bloc Québécois stood up in this House and voted against the budget.
We are asking for stable funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, for $40 per capita and for the additional $60 million that the corporation is forced to go looking for year after year to be restored and included in its budget.