Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Abbott, I'd like to point out that we did a one-page summary of what we think terms of trade are, some key principles, which we filed with the CRTC about a week or two ago about the CTVglobemedia-CHUM transaction. We would be happy to share that with the clerk. It will give you a really good summary of what we mean.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's important to point out that a lot of that back-catalogue programming is not necessarily programming that's been done by independent producers, from our members. It's been a recent trend, I guess the last five years or so, for the CBC to move aggressively into using independent production to fill its Canadian content schedule.

Canadian Heritage committee  In our view, in today's rapidly evolving broadcasting and communications environment, in which there is a constant proliferation of media choices available to Canadians, the need for a national public broadcaster that showcases almost 100% Canadian content on multiple platforms, including new media platforms, is more important than ever.

Canadian Heritage committee  Let's not forget the origins of BDU contributions to Canadian television production. In 1993 the CRTC held a structural hearing to review the evolving communications environment. One result from the hearing was the identification of a need to provide “aggressive encouragement to the production and distribution of more and better Canadian programming”.