Senator Housakos: My question is this: Why do you want to narrowcast francophone culture and have them only provide their services to a few million francophones when they have hundreds of millions around the world?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Would Senator Cardozo be kind enough to take a question?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Senator Downe, for this important amendment that you’re putting forward. We’ve been asked, with Bill C-11, on countless occasions by the government and others to trust the CRTC going forward in order to set reasonable standards and a framework for Bill C-11. We see now a very blatant example of how the CRTC neglects to enforce licensing obligations on a particular broadcaster.

The question I have for you is the following: Can we have faith, when they do not impose the obligations already — for example, they’ve never fined the CBC when it’s well within their right to do so when they don’t respect licensing; the CBC has never had public hearings in order to justify the reduction of services — can we trust the CRTC to ultimately do the job they’ve been given to do?

Senator Housakos: Senator Cardozo, congratulations. I think that is your maiden speech in the Senate. There’s a lot in your speech that we can dissect, but I’d like to just look at one aspect, where you talked about how popular Bill C-11 is in Quebec. I think Bill C-11 is popular in Quebec among those who are fans of cable and the traditional broadcasting model of doing business. It’s very unpopular among streamers, bloggers, Twitter users and all those young Quebecers living on these new platforms.

The reason those new platforms are so popular among francophones is because they don’t get narrowed into just a few million francophones who listen to their capacity to develop their art and culture. They get to broadcast around the world to millions and hundreds of millions of francophones.

Senator Housakos: Senator Simons, I’m a little confused. You’re either for transparency or you’re not. The problem we have had over many decades is that the CBC, when it comes to dealing with certain aspects, is taken away from the realm of good governance and the board, and they are managed directly by the minister’s office and whoever the CEO is, who has been appointed by the minister’s office to begin with. The Broadcasting Act is the exact place to protect taxpayers’ money.

What would be the hesitation, if we believe in transparency, putting it crystal clear in this revamped, modern and renewed Broadcasting Act to make sure that the CBC — which is funded completely by taxpayers’ money — will be transparent like every other government agency?