Canadian Heritage committee  Obviously, in order to stimulate creation, it's important to have funding that is used to create that initial period with respect to broadcasting. It has to do with discovering new talent. It's necessary to make sure that we cultivate new sounds, new words, with each generation a

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for inviting my colleague Michael Craig, acting senior manager for English television, and me, Scott Hutton, executive director of broadcasting with the CRTC, to appear before your committee. We commend you and your members for focusing on media and local

Canadian Heritage committee  Our information indicates that some broadcasters have already begun to implement measures further to our decisions. Those measures include a $25 basic package, small pre-assembled or custom packages, and pick-and-pay service. From a technical standpoint, the services seem to be e

Canadian Heritage committee  Technically speaking, the government focuses on communities, as they are indeed official language minority communities. We put in place a variety of measures aimed at cable and satellite distributors to ensure they provide a minimum level of service to minority communities. And

Canadian Heritage committee  There is a guaranteed service offering on two levels. First, local TV stations provide certain services, including CBC/Radio-Canada, which serves minority groups across the country. That service has to be included in the basic package. Second, there are also a certain number of

Canadian Heritage committee  We changed our rules in the specific case of TFO, but other services are mandatory.

Canadian Heritage committee  We regulate the broadcasting system, including those who provide local news. Traditionally in the past, we regulated the number of hours. You mentioned hours and I won't repeat them. The amounts are here. You mentioned quality. Quality is very difficult to measure. We've just

Canadian Heritage committee  The CRTC and our chairman through his speech certainly indicated we share those concerns with respect to the importance of investigative journalism. We're in a great period of transition at the CRTC and the media business. One of the constants in our business is that there is al

Canadian Heritage committee  We have excellent data on the companies we regulate, specifically. Over the years, we've undertaken various exercises in an effort to collect specific data. We had some trouble as time went on. We are all familiar with the three companies you mentioned, but they each have entirel

Canadian Heritage committee  As we said, the CRTC's position is this. Nearly $4 billion in support is available to us, here in Canada, through various mechanisms. Within that amount, a number of supports are accessible, and we're exploring the need for a reorientation, to help a new segment, one that didn't

Canadian Heritage committee  Indeed, we focus—

Canadian Heritage committee  We focus on programming. We strive for a system that produces high-quality programming that will appeal to Canadians, regardless of the platform.

Canadian Heritage committee  I know I introduced it in French in my speech. This is where I have to tread carefully, because those are matters that are in front of our commission for decision right now, but I'll try to find a way to help you in the answer. Those are questions that we asked at this local hea

Canadian Heritage committee  It wasn't local news; it was local programming. Although local programming often is news, it was.... That fund was introduced at a very trying time in the broadcast industry. We've talked a lot about advertising revenue being shared across multiple platforms. In 2008 there was

Canadian Heritage committee  We will not present. We'll stand by the chairman's introductory remarks, so we're available for questions.