Canadian Heritage committee  I don't understand what you mean by “royalties as an acceptable...”.

Canadian Heritage committee  There was a cutback in 1993 from Paul Martin's budget, not just for public broadcasting but for a whole range of things. I don't know what the exact number is, but 1993 is certainly the point at which things fell off dramatically.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll try to be brief. The issue is that the funding of the CBC is a political football, and has been for a long time, and that since the establishment of the Canadian Television Fund there's been an attempt to move public funding that would have gone into the CBC away from the CBC and put it into an independent fund.

Canadian Heritage committee  The question you're raising is obviously a fundamental question, which is how can Parliament justify spending a lot of money on the CBC if the CBC is only getting 7% of the audience, or whatever it might be. That is sort of like asking how we can justify a national Trans-Canada Highway if everyone in the country doesn't cross it.

Canadian Heritage committee  The CBC is competitive, and from a viewing standpoint in the current environment of fragmentation, all of the U.S. channels together get a 12% share. Global gets an 8.6% share. The CBC gets a 7% share. CTV gets a 14.6% share. That's for 2006-2007. So it isn't like no one's watching it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank this committee for coming to Montreal. I know it's a big operation to leave Ottawa. It certainly makes it a lot easier, I think, for all of us here to be able to meet with you, so it's appreciated. I'd like to introduce our delegation from ELAN.