Canadian Heritage committee  “Autonome“ is perhaps a poor translation of "arm's length", but that is what is usually understood by an arm's length relationship when we describe the CBC. It keeps its distance from government. It is not legally a Crown corporation. It does not have the status that Radio-France had—I do not know if that is still the case—or French television, which were truly government agencies.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, it is not financially autonomous, and I never suggested that it was.

Canadian Heritage committee  You are going to accuse me of always hiding behind the work to be done, but this is part of the work that will be started over the course of the coming year—a study of the funding model for the system as a whole, and that of the CBC, as part of this system. All I can tell you now is that we believe, as we have already said, that the CBC, as much as possible—I know that there are philosophical arguments against the CBC pulling back from the advertising market.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would be unfair for us to venture an opinion on that matter. That kind of question should be addressed to the president of the CBC and its board of directors, which is responsible for ensuring that the money is put to good use.

Canadian Heritage committee  In that sense, you are right. I was saying that there was a deliberate policy by one government and one legislator, at a certain point in time, to prevent the CBC from increasing its platforms and have it retain its role as a generalist. Thus, the CBC was restricted in several regards, primarily in terms of shelf space because it is unable to broadcast all the programs that it should be broadcasting according to its mandate.

Canadian Heritage committee  On the arm's length issue, I already answered that question before you came. On the BBC model, I could not tell you, honestly, by how much the budget of the CBC should be increased at this point in time. There are too many components that have to be put in place to answer that question, for me to say anything that would be intelligent, so I will avoid that one.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, those are also fundamental issues, as I indicated earlier, that have to be looked at, and I would be completely out of my depth to say anything but the fact that these are key issues to be dealt with.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may just add, that ties back to your question, Mr. Fast, about regulating. That's the kind of thing we are talking about, the fact that the CRTC should have an overview on all distribution platforms because the CRTC is the body in this country that is responsible for making sure that the objectives of the Broadcasting Act are attained.

Canadian Heritage committee  I want to clarify the word “regulate”. We are not against deregulation, don't get us wrong. But we are for the level playing field. We think all distribution platforms should be treated alike. The current ones that are recognized under the general headings of radio and television broadcasters, cable operators, and satellite deliverers are submitted to a regime, whether you call it regulation or whatever, that has them contributing to the objectives of the act through the money they have to invest in various funds and through the Canadian content regulations that apply to them.

Canadian Heritage committee  To the extent that we're sounding naive--and I will hand over to my colleague here in a second--I can assure you that we will be looking at those issues to get a better sense than I can give them today. And we are looking at them, quite frankly. You're right. It's not the same thing and it's not easy.

Canadian Heritage committee  There is no doubt that the rights and the debate about the rights are at the centre of all of this. It doesn't help that we don't know exactly where we're going with rights. It's a very difficult debate. It's a debate that has divided our own organization, quite frankly, just to show the extremes of positions that are taken on this topic in the past.

Canadian Heritage committee  I cannot answer that question, but I certainly take note of it. We're not only telling you and other people that we should look at things globally. We are planning, over the next year, to organize a conference that would try to look at the big picture. We're in the process of gathering the main elements of that event.

Canadian Heritage committee  There are many arguments concerning sports that have been used throughout the years. The debate is not new, and until last night all indications seemed to be, except very recently, that the CBC would be out of most major professional sports events in this country through the sheer force of the market, because until last night it was not clear that it would be able to secure the rights to Hockey Night in Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  We don't have a position on this one at this point, sir. We may have one by next year, if the work we are planning goes well. It's something that has to be looked at in the general ecology of the system. Important financial aspects are linked to that, and unless we make trade-offs in the system as such that would not disfavour one party, whether it be the private or the public sector, in trying to achieve the objectives of the act, I think we should not tinker with that.

Canadian Heritage committee  As far as I know, there is not.