Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. Again, I think the Canadian media fund recognizes that the Canadian landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. They recognize that the market is more fragmented. They recognize that there is more and more of an audience who is watching television on other than conventional TV sets.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. We have demonstrated that 90% of our programming is Canadian.

Canadian Heritage committee  At the hearings, what we were trying to mention was that conventional television was in bad shape and that we would therefore need to have fees to subsidize it. Yes, for sure, we will be ready to commit to and create the sorts of commitment to invest in Canadian programming.

Canadian Heritage committee  You have to understand that the CRTC was entirely legitimate when there were few broadcasting channels. Television was regulated. Subsequently, after the war, we encountered...Today, things are different. People have different ways of staying informed and of entertaining themselves, notably through the Internet which cannot be “regulated“ in that it is not a geographically confined system that operates in a vacuum.

Canadian Heritage committee  The Canadian Heritage Committee is an official forum, Madam.

Canadian Heritage committee  You won't tell anyone.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would not presume to speak for Rogers officials. We are a little surprised by their position. For a number of years now in Canada, North America and throughout the Western World, general interest television networks, the pillars of the broadcasting systems in various countries, have seen their audiences shrink.

Canadian Heritage committee  What interests and concerns us is the health of general interest television. That is what we have been saying for many years. The health of general interest television is tied to the health of broadcasting systems. With that in mind, we...

Canadian Heritage committee  Exactly.

Canadian Heritage committee  I believe I made myself quite clear when I spoke about this proposal. We must leave it up to the different industry stakeholders to decide, through the negotiation process, the value of their respective services. We have made representation on several occasions to the CRTC. Eventually, we agreed to a transition period during which we would move from a highly regulated environment to one that is less regulated, where market forces and players will decide the fair values of these services.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, allow me to introduce my colleagues. To my left is Pierre Dion, President and Chief Executive Officer of TVA. To my right is Serge Sasseville, Vice-President of Corporate and Institutional Affairs at Quebecor Media.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll start by answering the first question. What was the purpose of the legislation? What was the legislator seeking to do by creating obligations for the cable distributor which was, at the time, a monopoly? Well, this monopoly has completely disappeared. As you know full well, Canadians benefit from a communications system that is this effective because billions of dollars were invested in it.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we have been loud and clear. We are committed to Canadian production. We're committed to this industry. We are ready to be under the microscope of the CRTC for the amount of money that we are committing to put in the system. This is, I think, our real solution. At the end of the day, we believe that because we are accountable to our shareholders, our auditors, and the population in general, we will be in a good position to talk and think about providing a decent solution for Canadians.

Canadian Heritage committee  This is what we've said. We are providing a solution, but where the CTF will end up, again, is not our decision, nor do we have the capacity to figure that out. It's a government issue. I'd like to mention something. It's not because we're private that we are not servicing the public.

Canadian Heritage committee  I mentioned in my presentation, Mr. Abbott, that we started ringing the issue many years ago. More specifically, we did it in writing to the CTF by a letter from our representative, Mr. Pierre Lampron. I think it was dated—