Canadian Heritage committee  In its current form, the bill is far from ideal because we are still being ignored. This has a considerable impact on us and more particularly on local news production, an area that is already in crisis. The act needs to be modernized. Things must move quickly; we have been talking about it this for a really long time.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Champoux. In the latest amendments to the act, the CRTC stopped requiring cable companies in metropolitan areas to invest in community television and redirected them to local media outlets. In my opinion, this makes no sense because it means taking money away from some organizations and people who were doing local news and redirecting it to other local news.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for your question. Actually, what's missing from this bill is the community component. First, it's not in the definitions. Unlike community radio, there are very few definitions for community television. There's also an amalgam between stand-alone community television, represented here by my colleague, Cathy Edwards, and myself, and cable-owned community television.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank you for having us today. We're very pleased to appear before the members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. This is the first time we've appeared before the committee, and we're delighted to have this opportunity. I'm going to talk to you about community television in Canada.