provided a strong grade B signal to Montreal. However, the CRTC did not approve the Maxville transmitter with the others because it had previously issued a moratorium on new TV stations in Montreal. One columnist noted that language and political considerations meant the CRTC would not entertain such a service before Montreal had three French-language TV stations. The TVA CanWest deal would take some time to be approved because of another proposed transaction. CFCF and Vidéotron had proposed an asset swap that would have given CFCF control of TVA and TQS while leaving all of Montreal's cable systems with the latter company, and the CRTC announced it wanted to hear that proposal first. That logjam was resolved in April 1996, when Vidéotron acquired all of CFCF with an eye to spinning off its English-language holdings. It would not be until December of that year when the CRTC finally heard the CKMI application. TVA CanWest pledged a commitment of $165 million over seven years on new Canadian programming to the regulator if it won in Quebec City and proposed new stations for Calgary and Edmonton. Ahead of the hearings, CFCF vigorously fought the proposal, claiming any competition would reduce its value and jeopardize its community service initiatives; it called into question any pledge to produce regional programming, with CFCF weatherman Don McGowan noting that Quebec City was "where 42 anglophones live today". A full-page newspaper ad from CFCF blasted the idea of Global being "allowed to slip through the back door" into Montreal, ominously threatening that it would mean "no more CFCF 12 as we know it". In November, the CRTC ruled against Global's Alberta stations bid. At the hearing the next month, Izzy Asper took the CRTC to task, noting that English-speaking Montrealers were higher-than-average viewers of American stations available on cable. The CRTC approved the CKMI Global bid on February 27, 1997; on the same day, it also approved Vidéotron's purchase of CFCF's business contingent on spinning off the English-language stations and TQS. Over the course of 1997, changes were made in preparation for CKMI's relaunch. In Quebec City, CKMI would move from channel 5 to 20, to permit the CBC to take over the channel 5 facility for CBVE-TV, a full-time repeater of CBMT. The Montreal transmitter, originally assigned channel 67, was changed to 46. With the addition of CKMI, CanWest's station group, the CanWest Global System, would