Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the resignation of Tony Manera, the president of CBC, is a very upsetting sign. In my opinion, red flags should go up and sound an alarm about the future of Canada's national broadcasting system. Mr. Speaker, most northerners I know grew up with the CBC, when CBC was the only medium in the Northwest Territories, before the era of private radio stations. I recall as a boy putting together a crystal set and tuning into the CBC either from Winnipeg or from Sackville, New Brunswick; you could always get the best reception after dark. At that time, the CBC provided the only link to the south during the long winter months. Along with the news, they broadcast special features, sports stories, drama and a broad spectrum of music; especially Canadian musicians, Don Messer being one of them.

Northerners will recall that up until the early 1960s, the CBC provided the northern messenger service, a program dedicated to providing messages to people in the most remote and isolated communities of the high Arctic and on to the trap lines of the northern provinces and here to the Northwest Territories.

In recent times we can still enjoy, in nearly every community, a television receiver and the CBC on either am or fm frequencies. We produce our own radio programs in Iqaluit, Inuvik and Yellowknife as well as television in Iqaluit and Yellowknife. It has kept people in Tuktoyaktuk informed about what is happening in Iqaluit and help southerners understand our northern points of view.

Many aboriginal people have received quality training from the CBC and are now producers, technicians and broadcasters. Any cuts to the CBC funding will adversely effect them and a large part of our heritage as well. If these cuts take place and we lose any more of the current broadcasting or if we lose it all, I believe our lives will be much poorer for it.

The federal budget cuts to the CBC reflect a false cost-saving measure. It is true we will save a few bucks in the short term, but in the long run we will lose more valuable things. We will lose a large part of our heritage and of our culture.

At one time the railroad linked the country from coast to coast, but our national broadcaster has always linked Canada from coast to coast to coast. Thank you.