moved:
That, in the opinion of the House, CBC/Radio-Canada plays a key role in informing, entertaining and uniting Canadians and is today weakened because of the many rounds of cuts over the past 20 years, and calls on the government to: (a) reverse the $45 million in cuts for 2014-2015 in Budget 2012; and (b) provide adequate, stable, multi-year funding to the public broadcaster so that it can fulfill its mandate.
Mr. Speaker, the House of Commons will be devoting today's debate to what is happening at CBC. It is a very serious situation.
This is more than just a simple debate. In truth, we are calling for an emergency debate today so that we can acknowledge the crisis at our public broadcaster. Never before has CBC been in such a crisis.
We decided that this debate needs to happen because the government has decided to wash its hands of the problem, even though it is responsible for this situation. This government ignored our calls for accountability. We asked for the government to be accountable for its actions and budget cuts at CBC.
I would also like to note that the minister pledged in this House to testify about the CBC situation before a committee. However, her big boss got his members on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to fix it so that she was not invited to come talk about this topic, which is an embarrassment for them.
The government is also choosing to disregard the tens of thousands of Canadians who are speaking out and expressing their dismay at the situation at CBC/Radio-Canada. Every member here in the House must admit that they have constituents who are taking a stand and speaking out—