Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for asking that question, which is very important to me. Cultural sovereignty is a fundamental issue of national identity. This has always been the case. When the CBC/Radio-Canada was created in the 1930s, Canada wanted to set itself apart from its neighbour to the sou

Canadian Heritage committee  The urgent measures.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would say that, on one level, what we are proposing is good for everyone. Then we recommend that the future regulatory entity, which we want to call the “Canadian Communications Commission”, refine that. There are a lot of things we haven't specified, such as percentages and qu

Canadian Heritage committee  In my opinion, this is the role that the new Canadian communications commission will have to play. These companies must respect linguistic duality, but it will be up to the commission to decide how and to what extent they should do so. In our opinion, the existence of both langua

Canadian Heritage committee  It came up in our discussions but we didn't take any position that Radio-Canada cannot, for example, have subscription services like the one you just mentioned. There are currently complaints filed with the CRTC about that. For CBC/Radio-Canada, we objected to advertising revenu

Canadian Heritage committee  She worked at the CRTC. I worked at the NFB. The National Film Board, or NFB, produces only Canadian content. It's mandatory. That''s all it produces. So, yes, the NFB should have more money. The current debate is about how that money is spent. We were not mandated to study the

Canadian Heritage committee  I would say that the greatest risk is really the disappearance of reliable news and that it affects all parts of the country. Every time a radio station, a local newspaper or journalistic activities disappear, it represents a risk to democracy. The other risk are social harms or

Canadian Heritage committee  I really don't have much to add, but the writers, the people who write the programs and the films, are central to creation. These Canadian script writers are going to write Canadian stories seen through their eyes and their experiences. That's extremely important. Otherwise we wi

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd like to say something. You have to have a regulatory body. There is no way around it. In our report, we propose that it be changed considerably. This should partly address your criticism.

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. First, we travelled across Canada. We went very far. We went up north and into the provinces. We met with a number of groups and individuals, who often told us that local and regional media have disappeared, so there is no longer any representation of their lives and what i

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd like to correct that.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm chair of the Quebecor Fund, which is a CRTC decision.

Canadian Heritage committee  Of course, the BBC is often used as a model. Its funding system was based on a licence fee on television and radio sets. With the advancement of technology, that had to be changed, of course. It has a very extensive network. It has also set up production studios recently. We stud

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd like to add one more thing. The report makes it very clear that nowadays, you cannot participate as a citizen of Canada—by that I mean your civic duty, your professional life and everything you do—if you do not have access to a sophisticated communications system. That is cl