Canadian Heritage committee  Big mistake.

Canadian Heritage committee  By all means, we would encourage it. Call it transparency, call it what you want, but the important thing is that you be informed as fully as possible of how the operation works. I hope you will get the opportunity to see more of the operation across Canada. Finally, if I may, once you have completed hearing from Canadians, I hope we get the opportunity to come back to discuss ideas together.

Canadian Heritage committee  Richard, Sylvain.

Canadian Heritage committee  One of the things one must remember is that it takes a couple of years from idea to the actual creation of the program. But in the past, with the approval of my board, we have given some money to radio, and we have seen in particular radio using it for very creative programming and new programming, so the number of repeats has gone down quite significantly as we try new programs.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not going to duck, but I'm not going to give you an answer.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the reality is that it depends on the priorities that you, as parliamentarians, ask us to do. If you want us to expand our regional services, we have tabled a report with the government that says it would take a minimum of about $120 million. If you want us to cover the 25% of the Canadian population who don't get a local radio service, that will cost about $20 million to $25 million.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's one way to get all your questions into one shot.

Canadian Heritage committee  With respect to over-the-air, when we talked to the CRTC we were very cognizant of the fact that we have 650 transmitting towers for television alone, plus radio as a separate item, and that these towers are aging. They were built mainly in the 1970s, and they were built to serve all communities of 500 or more.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think, Mr. Angus, you're absolutely right. There is a long tail now for both the monetization and the viewing. People are not going to necessarily watch things when we tell them to watch; they're not necessarily going to watch it the way we tell them to watch it. There has to be an adjustment in the financial model and in the purchase model.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think this is one of the major issues that the CRTC task force will have to confront. We will definitely talk to them. When we meet, we will talk to them in terms of the long tail for rights and how we come to an accommodation that makes some sense.

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think there's any doubt about their independence.

Canadian Heritage committee  We see the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting as a lobby organization for broadcasting in general, and in particular, Canadian broadcasting, with some focus on the CBC. We sometimes believe that the focus is very narrowly defined around the regions and around local programming. We don't disagree with it at all.

Canadian Heritage committee  You've covered a lot of territory.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's fine. I'll try to comment on some, and perhaps my colleagues will add, as well. What I find comforting, if I can use that word, in what I understand of your hearings so far, is a growing recognition that you just can't say to the CBC, “do more”. I think there's a growing recognition that we are stretched as far as we can be stretched, and if we were to do more, in fact we'd do less.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to start an answer, but I'm also going to ask Mr. Stursberg. What we're now beginning to implement is beyond an experiment. It is what we call “My CBC”, which is in many ways at the local, regional level designed to meet exactly what you're talking about. Let me start by saying we don't define what the common values are.