Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his testimony. I think it was more of a testimony than a speech, and I was particularly touched by the emotional aspect, since I watched La Soirée du hockey as a young boy in Trois-Rivières. I also watched Les Beaux dimanches and shows like Rencontres, which we never would have been able to see or been allowed to watch on a private network.
I think this shows just how important our public broadcaster is. CBC gave us a picture of this vast country that was much more accurate than the map on the “Canada” notebooks I was using at that age.
I must point out, though, that the member's party began these massive funding cuts to CBC, which is how we have ended up where we are now. When we know that we are rank 16th out of 18 in terms of funding for public television, I think that reversing the $45 million in cuts is just the beginning.
I want to know whether my colleague thinks it is necessary that we bring ourselves closer at least to the world average for public television funding in the coming years.