Canadian Heritage committee  To ask the question whether the government will allow ownership by foreign businesses is to speculate about the future, something we can't do. What I can tell you today is that the provision under the Broadcasting Act is clear on the fact that ownership of broadcasting undertakings must be—

Canadian Heritage committee  That's not what I'm trying to tell you. It's that you're asking me to step out of my role as an official who does not take part in a political debate.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can tell you, by consulting the annex to my presentation, that it is indeed only private sector companies, but if we had added CBC/Radio-Canada, we see that companies are increasingly realizing that their business strategies—and we recently saw this with the purchase of Shaw and BCE's proposed purchase, which is still before the CRTC—must be multi-platform strategies.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure for me to be here with my colleagues. We have a few slides to show you to support my remarks, just to simplify the presentation. Obviously, Mr. Chairman, you'll understand that we certainly can't be here to speculate about future policy directions of the government, but we're more than happy to provide some factual information to the extent we can.

Canadian Heritage committee  The success rate is even higher than that, because since we've been administering the act--in 1999--there have only been three refusals.

Canadian Heritage committee  Then the appropriate provision in the act is there. There is what is called a status opinion or even a non-status opinion. Status opinion goes directly to the “Canadianness”--they can ask through that process, or they can ask other technical questions, which we can provide advance opinions on.

Canadian Heritage committee  Keep in mind that the application that comes in is not necessarily the one we approve, in the sense that there is a dialogue that occurs that improves the application and its approvability.

Canadian Heritage committee  An example of that would be, as I mentioned earlier, production companies in Canada. We have a policy: technically they have to apply, but they're very much fast-tracked.

Canadian Heritage committee  I should have said because they believe they're subject to the act.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can't comment one way or the other, because that gets into the specifics, but other investors have.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a pleasure. Thank you very much.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, and I can't tell you in which circumstance, because the Income Tax Act also has a similar provision. So I can't share that. But I certainly would have access to that.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not prepared to answer that, unfortunately, but it is an extensive review.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we would run out of time if I were to answer that, since there are only a few minutes left. The act sets out a very complex definition, with subsections. We have to determine whether it is a corporation, a trust or a joint venture, and we need to examine the nature of the arrangement.

Canadian Heritage committee  As I mentioned, there are explicit policies. There's one in the area of film and there's another one in the area of books. In other cases they are implicit. For instance, there is no explicit written policy with respect to newspapers. However, an implicit policy found in section 19 of the Income Tax Act has a certain tax treatment for newspapers and their advertising.