Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you for your invitation to come and talk with you today about CBC/Radio-Canada's plans and priorities. We appreciate your interest in, and your support of, public broadcasting. Before moving on to the

Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Coderre. It's a pleasure for me to meet you officially. I appeared in December, and you were not yet on the committee. Incidentally, I very much believed in the program Les Héros du samedi, because I worked on it.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a pleasure for me to talk to you about our workshops on respect. This extraordinary initiative is the result of a joint effort by the union and management parties of Radio-Canada. In 2005, an employee survey was conducted, and we identified three causes of discomfort in Radi

Canadian Heritage committee  The investment amounts to nearly $1 million, $250,000 of which comes from the six unions and $100,000 from a federal government grant under the employer-employee partnership program. The rest of the money comes from Radio-Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  I assure you that our workshops on respect are recognized as places where people work hard. They learn things there. Through this exercise, I really hope to improve the day-to-day work of our employees.

Canadian Heritage committee  Once again, that's a question concerning programming. That's a decision for the vice-presidents. We'll make that decision at the appropriate time, if there is a change in the normal course of our business, Ms. Mourani.

Canadian Heritage committee  Allow me to give you some information on our access to information program. Since September 2007, when our corporation became subject to the Access to Information Act, we've received 580 requests. To put that in perspective, the Crown corporation that receives the next largest n

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Coderre, that kind of question concerns our programming and the way we manage our business, as well as the independence we show in our day-to-day activities. Mr. Chairman, allow me not to answer that question. I believe that would be justified.

Canadian Heritage committee  Exactly. A major provision on the independence of Radio-Canada contained in the Broadcasting Act prevents the department, parliamentary committees and any other—

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  I explained to you that 73 of the 580 requests that we've received are pending. The other 150 or 170 are not closed files and are also part of the process. I'm not aware—

Canadian Heritage committee  —of that specific case. If you want to send me a copy, I'll be pleased to follow it up.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can assure you that we have no intention of not being transparent in handling requests. That's definitely not the way we currently handle requests. We were surprised by the volume. We're trying to solve this problem, and that's why we've just hired new employees.

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Siksay, thank you for allowing me to address these two important questions. I know they've been on your mind, and they've been on the minds of everybody, particularly but not exclusively in the western part of Canada. Let me deal with this in two blocks; first off, the block

Canadian Heritage committee  I will ask Richard, please, to answer that question.