Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you for the question, Senator Patterson. It is a very timely and legitimate one.

I do have concerns, and all Canadians should have concerns because at the end of the day, we saw the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada come out and acknowledge — and it’s interesting that right in the middle of the heated debate on Bill C-11, she acknowledged, for all intents and purposes, what many of us have been saying for a long time — that traditional broadcasting is declining quickly. The announcement she made is that there is a plan over 10 years for CBC to transform into a digital platform rather than a cable broadcaster.

However, if you look at the licensing obligations of CBC/Radio-Canada, they are a national cable broadcaster supposedly responsible for providing national regional news and local news serving rural and remote regions of the country. Clearly, they’ve been subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars over a number of decades to provide that service. As they cut their obligatory licensing responsibilities, they are taking funds from taxpayers and putting it in a digital world, developing their digital platform, which is clearly not their mandate. I am concerned, and Canadians should be concerned.

I am also concerned why the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, isn’t taking steps to reel CBC/Radio-Canada in and to remind them of their licensing obligations. I’m equally concerned as to why the minister and the ministry have not imposed the fines and penalties that CBC is due to be imposed upon when they breach their licensing responsibilities.