Information & Ethics committee  That's obvious, as that is CBC's position. However, as you know, there is an exception to the exception. That's the problem. You have read Judge Baudoin's decision. He stated his reasons. We will see what the court of appeal has to say about that. The principle is clear: the prob

Information & Ethics committee  First of all, the Broadcasting Act has a specific section devoted to the CBC, and we obviously have nothing to do with the CBC's financing or CBC programming. But there are certain objectives that are set out for the CBC in the act, and there are all sorts of public interest grou

Information & Ethics committee  I'd say our relationship with the CBC is like that with all other licensees: essentially they go along. Obviously, they challenge you when you take a position they disagree with. They try to convince us of the error of our ways. Sometimes we have issues in terms of compliance, wh

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  As you know, I used to be a judge on the Federal Court, so I look at this through that judicial focus. I read the judgment, and it is a disagreement between the CBC and the access commissioner on how to interpret that section, especially on whether she is entitled to look at docu

Information & Ethics committee  The fund has now been in operation for three years. As I've mentioned, Canadians really value local television for what it is: it is local and brings to the news what is happening in your local area. We've heard that over and over in our hearings. Yet when you run a television ne

Information & Ethics committee  These are the ones on which we ask them to report. Obviously, when we have a hearing, people can bring forward whatever evidence they have to show that local programming either does or doesn't work.

Information & Ethics committee  It's exactly as I said before. Some people may claim it's confidential, in which case I won't release it. If we get a request, and if it has been filed with us..... If it's not filed as confidential, obviously it's public, and it goes on our website. If they file it with me as co

Information & Ethics committee  I think the terms are basically synonymous. A public broadcaster is usually owned by the state. You could have a public broadcaster that is not owned by the state; that's why there is the slight distinction. But in this country we use the terms synonymously. I think “public broad

Information & Ethics committee  CBC, like everybody else, has given us the costs addressing these points. Everybody does it slightly differently, and we have to evaluate. This LPIF program, as I mentioned, was born in the middle of the financial crisis, when there was a danger of many stations going dark. It'

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  We're talking here about third-party information, that is, information that is not ours but which people have filed with us and they claim is commercially confidential. This is a very dicey thing. On the one hand, you want to disclose as much as possible; on the other hand, you

Information & Ethics committee  It is out right now: as I say, it is with a court. You asked me how it could be improved. I think procedural improvements could be made and the process could be sped up. But the basic principle that a third party decides is, I think, correct.

Information & Ethics committee  No, we ask for all sorts of information from anybody who's licensed. Whether it's a broadcaster or a distributor of cable content, they file it with us. Each year we publish a volume this thick called the Canadian communications report, or something like that.

Information & Ethics committee  It is considered more or less the bible by the industry, that is, as reliable data of what's happening in the industry, including how many people are watching, what they're watching, how much they're spending, the times, and how the audience shifts, etc. It's all aggregated so it