Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. My name is Scott Hutton. I am associate executive director, broadcasting, at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. I am here today with Martine Vallee, our director of English pay and specialty television and social

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm a bit uncomfortable in answering, because as I indicated earlier, that is a key consideration of our current over-the-air hearings with respect to broadcasters, which will set out a policy. Currently the CRTC's policy and the government's policy is trusting the market to rep

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll answer the last part. In our report, we actually go out of our way to indicate that it is not the time to lift the exemption just yet. Some of the words you've indicated, and certainly an open question in our report that I repeat in my opening statement is, should the new me

Canadian Heritage committee  The CRTC's role with respect to the Société Radio-Canada is similar to the role it plays with respect to the CBC. Although we are close to these organizations, their mandate is clear and it is also included in the Canadian Broadcasting Act. We are therefore required to apply slig

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we do receive complaints. We could provide you with that information. We do have some details with us here today.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll defer to Mr. Foster.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would seem that we have not received a large number of complaints regarding the availability of French-language services outside Quebec and English-language services in Quebec and the Maritime provinces. People wanting to send in their comments may send them to us or to the CB

Canadian Heritage committee  I can answer on two fronts. One, currently we are certainly looking at all of our regulations to ensure that we remain flexible and nimble. We are conducting a set of policy reviews. While traditionally policy reviews have a shelf life of about seven to eight years, I think our

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. This comment seems very timely to me, for today, as well as for the future of the Canadian broadcasting system. Especially when it comes to English-speaking Canada, you can't lose site of our proximity to the United States. On the French-language side, the market's small siz

Canadian Heritage committee  Are you referring to the CRTC's role with respect to regulating the CBC/Radio-Canada?

Canadian Heritage committee  Unless you're referring to Quebec television.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd have to go back to a little bit of history, to our dealings in licence renewals. At the last licence renewal in the year 2000, when some of the new technologies were coming on board, that very issue was raised. I think our point of view at that point in time was that explorat

Canadian Heritage committee  Not to downplay changes that are before us, but if one looks at our situation right now--forget about new media--you have newspapers, you have magazines, you have arts, you have broadcasting. There are probably a number of different ways for Canadians to see themselves or to see

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, I would have to agree with the proposition of the CAB that if Canada does not provide high-quality television services, in this case HD, Canadians will watch HD from other countries. So it's very important that we remain at the forefront and offer Canadians those ch