Canadian Heritage committee  As far as I know, there is not.

Canadian Heritage committee  I am not accusing you of anything, but the trick in your question is the word "local". What is a local or regional television station?

Canadian Heritage committee  That is the great debate. In the 1970s, there were so-called regional stations in Rimouski, Matane, Sept-Îles and Jonquière, but there were none in other regions of the country. A regional station was created in Regina, but this is not the same thing as a regional station in Rimo

Canadian Heritage committee  This is also a question of means and technological strategy. These elements must be considered together. The CBC/SRC should not be forced to do things locally that would be suicidal financially. Other vehicles should be looked at, such as the Internet, which is developing, etc.

Canadian Heritage committee  I will respond by repeating what the President of the CBC said when he appeared before you the last time. He said that you put it in a contract and that, when it is accompanied by the necessary money, you get what you want: the punishment must fit the crime, so the bill must f

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, that's a point that we've made on several occasions with the CRTC in different hearings. We believe that as the act is technologically neutral, the funding that goes with the act should be technologically neutral, and therefore all providers of all platforms should be called

Canadian Heritage committee  There is no doubt that the rights and the debate about the rights are at the centre of all of this. It doesn't help that we don't know exactly where we're going with rights. It's a very difficult debate. It's a debate that has divided our own organization, quite frankly, just to

Canadian Heritage committee  I cannot answer that question, but I certainly take note of it. We're not only telling you and other people that we should look at things globally. We are planning, over the next year, to organize a conference that would try to look at the big picture. We're in the process of gat

Canadian Heritage committee  There are many arguments concerning sports that have been used throughout the years. The debate is not new, and until last night all indications seemed to be, except very recently, that the CBC would be out of most major professional sports events in this country through the shee

Canadian Heritage committee  We don't have a position on this one at this point, sir. We may have one by next year, if the work we are planning goes well. It's something that has to be looked at in the general ecology of the system. Important financial aspects are linked to that, and unless we make trade-o

Canadian Heritage committee  I want to clarify the word “regulate”. We are not against deregulation, don't get us wrong. But we are for the level playing field. We think all distribution platforms should be treated alike. The current ones that are recognized under the general headings of radio and televisi

Canadian Heritage committee  To the extent that we're sounding naive--and I will hand over to my colleague here in a second--I can assure you that we will be looking at those issues to get a better sense than I can give them today. And we are looking at them, quite frankly. You're right. It's not the same t

Canadian Heritage committee  On the arm's length issue, I already answered that question before you came. On the BBC model, I could not tell you, honestly, by how much the budget of the CBC should be increased at this point in time. There are too many components that have to be put in place to answer that q

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, those are also fundamental issues, as I indicated earlier, that have to be looked at, and I would be completely out of my depth to say anything but the fact that these are key issues to be dealt with.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may just add, that ties back to your question, Mr. Fast, about regulating. That's the kind of thing we are talking about, the fact that the CRTC should have an overview on all distribution platforms because the CRTC is the body in this country that is responsible for making