Senator Dagenais: CBC and Radio-Canada receive $1.3 billion a year from the federal government. That’s Canadian taxpayers’ money. Your government keeps talking about access to quality information in its rather futile and never-ending war with the web giants.

Rather than going after Meta and Google, could your Prime Minister first ensure that the CBC’s information mandate is respected and, more importantly, free?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question and for pointing out the importance for Canadians of not only RDI and CBC, but also of access to information. I am setting aside all the issues around Bill C‑18 and all the issues tied to the funding of CBC/Radio Canada — which are still issues, especially in certain parts of our country.

I will certainly take your concerns seriously and share them with the government so it can act to better help Canadians have access to the information we all need as and when it gets the opportunity to do so.