Canadian Heritage committee  We think it is quite absurd that a double standard is applied to special interest and specialty channels. Specialty television was vulnerable at first. So extremely particular conditions were created to enable those channels to establish themselves in the television universe. Today, specialty channels—you and I both saw the reports of the companies, Astral Media, which is very prominent in Quebec—make a lot of profits and remit quite little in terms of production licences.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think so. The CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate, as defined on paper, which states that it must be a leader with regard to Canadian values, is still valid, in our opinion. It can be improved, but, simply stated, I would say yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  You talked about radio. Of course, the golden age of radio, when there were serial dramas on the radio, is over. I don't believe it will be back soon, unless we want to have nostalgia radio. So I think that radio is no longer the most appropriate medium for writers or for stories to tell.

Canadian Heritage committee  At SARTEC, we have always advocated a diversity of production sites for reasons of quality and competition. In the case of Radio-Canada, there should be a balance between in-house productions and productions bought from independent producers, because we believe that a diversity of production sites will put people in competition with each other and incur greater creativity and probably lower costs.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. We represent writers, who form the bottom of the pyramid of television culture, since it is our members who write the scripts. Among other things, the Broadcasting Act provides that the broadcasting system should: (ii) encourage the development of Canadian expression by providing a wide range of programming that reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity, by displaying Canadian talent in entertainment programming [...]