Canadian Heritage committee  In our recent appearances before the CRTC, we have argued for an approach to policy and regulation based on what we call the Corus “big six”. We think that our big six principles are particularly relevant to this proceeding. Allow me to list them one at a time. The first principle is to embrace the merits of fostering a Canadian-owned but globally competitive industry.

Canadian Heritage committee  That is in the context where we have to compete with the rest of the world. If we are required to follow rules that will compromise our ability to compete globally or have quotas that are higher than those of any other industry stakeholder, who would have free rein in our market, then that would really compromise our capacity, since, financially speaking, we would have obligations that would be greater than those of our competitors.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee. Unfortunately, there was not enough time between your indication an appearance for us to get a brief translated. That being said, the tables included in our document would be easy to understand. We also understand that the committee hoped that we would keep our remarks short.

Bill C-11 committee  We also operate 37 radio stations that serve local communities from Cornwall to Vancouver. Corus Radio is all about personality and connecting with local listeners and communities. Our stations reach approximately 12 million Canadians each week. We are part of a radio industry that employs people and is a fundamental part of the local culture of virtually every riding in Canada, including that of every member of this committee.

Bill C-11 committee  The way it works now, as it was explained earlier, is the music is digitally sent to us. At that point we download it into our database. I will just add to what Mr. Maavara told you earlier. One of the reasons we have to manually identify everything is that we have to turn around and pay all of these collectives, so we have to identify whose music it is, and they require digital logs to do that.

Bill C-11 committee  Right. For what we call the communication rights, which is the right to broadcast the content, that has increased 63% over the last ten years. On the reproduction right or the mechanical right we're talking about, that's increased 483% over the last ten years. And just to put this in contrast, our revenues have increased 41% over that time period.

Bill C-11 committee  That's correct.

Bill C-11 committee  Just to give you a comparison, in the U.S. in 2008 the performance fee, as a percentage of total revenues, was 2.36%, and in Canada it's 5.8%. That just gives you an idea.