Canadian Heritage committee  We're not producers; we're representatives of the performers who take part in the productions. So no, the CBC doesn't consult us on funds or on programming. It's between the producers and the CBC. We come in at the next level. I honestly don't see us taking part in that process.

Canadian Heritage committee  There are two things with the new media. The bigger centres of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver are much more into it than a place like St. John's. The viewers there and the producers are further ahead than we are, there's no doubt about it whatsoever. So moving over to the new technologies and all the rest, I think that's a national concern more than a regional concern, to be totally honest, except for the fact that these new platforms you talk about are what our kids are using.

Canadian Heritage committee  The final thing is there isn't enough money in the CBC now. There aren't enough resources to do the programming, buy the programming, and show Canadians to Canadians. It's horrendously expensive, as we've all seen with the new equipment and everything else that's needed. It needs to be separately funded; it can't affect the programming.

Canadian Heritage committee  Regional programming has been gone from Newfoundland for a long time. Around 20 years ago, the CBC stopped producing in-house here almost totally, except for news and current affairs programming. But what they started doing was issuing licensing fees to independent producers with access to other forms of funding.

Canadian Heritage committee  For most of the licensing fees for most of the productions that are done here, the initial broadcast licence, which triggers the other funding, comes through the CBC. For the most part, the CBC is the.... Without the initial broadcast licence, everything else doesn't fall into place, which means you really have no production.