Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss French-language television programming outside Quebec, programming that our government happens to support in a number of ways.
To begin, the Canada media fund, which is funded by the federal government and cable and satellite distributors in Canada, is the largest fund in the industry for the production of Canadian television programs and digital media content. The CMF funds Canadian television programs and digital media content in both official languages and in aboriginal languages. It also encourages official language minority community productions.
Through a contribution agreement, the government has allocated a stable, permanent envelope of $134.1 million per year since 2010-11. Under the agreement, we set the CMF's guiding principles and broad public policy directions.
One of the things the contribution agreement between the government and the CMF stipulates is that one-third of the funding allocated through the convergent stream and the experimental stream must be granted to French-language productions. This provision ensures the sustainability of French-language television production, while giving Canadians the opportunity to watch programs produced in both official languages.
Also under the contribution agreement, the government must guarantee French-language television producers outside Quebec access to the francophone minority program. That program will provide $10.75 million in 2015-16 to support productions that reflect the realities of living in francophone communities outside Quebec. In 2013-14, 32 projects were funded through that program, for a total of 147 hours of television, a record high for the past four years.
The total production budgets supported by the francophone minority program, considering all other sources of funding, increased by $4.1 million compared to 2012-13, for a total of $24.8 million. Other measures also exist to support French-language programming, notably through the CRTC.
For example, in 2013, the Commission granted a licence to UNIS, a new French-language television service with the mandate of representing minority francophone communities. The CRTC recognized the importance of providing programming for francophones living outside Quebec by making the distribution of UNIS mandatory with the basic package of cable and satellite television service providers across Canada. Accordingly, all Canadian subscribers of these services have access to it.
In addition, our government recognizes that CBC/Radio-Canada, as the national public broadcaster, plays a vital role in official language minority communities. Every year, our government allocates more than $1 billion to help it fulfill its obligations as a public national broadcaster.
With the most recent renewal of the television licences of CBC/Radio-Canada in May 2013, the CRTC established conditions to ensure that services reflect the realities of the country and official language minority communities, and also to promote understanding and mutual respect through information and national news programming.
Under the conditions of its licence, Radio-Canada is also required to devote at least 6% of its annual budget to Canadian programs by independent producers from Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the west, the north and Quebec, excluding Montreal. This obligation resulted in $9.5 million in expenditures for independent regional French-language programming in 2013-14.
In closing, the corporation's French-language services must also broadcast, on average, a minimum of five hours of Canadian programs produced in the regions I mentioned every week over the broadcast year.