Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Honourable members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to make a presentation before you today. My name is David McLeod. I am the executive director of Native Communications Incorporated, also known as NCI-FM. We operate a province-wide radio network that reaches 97% of Manitoba with 57 radio transmitters located from Winnipeg all the way to Churchill. Our provincial reach equals that of CBC radio here in Manitoba. We've also been approved for a new site location in Kenora, which we hope to have up this summer.
NCI-FM is a non-profit broadcaster. We generate 80% of our total budget with advertising and fundraising efforts such as radio bingo. Twenty percent of our budget is received from the northern native broadcast access program, otherwise known as NNBAP, which is administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage. This program provides funding for the production and distribution of aboriginal radio and television programming. We are one of 13 regional aboriginal communications societies that are currently a part of the NNBAP program. NNBAP serves status and non-status first nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in all regions of Canada.
I'm here today to share some thoughts on CBC from an aboriginal broadcaster perspective. In order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of my recommendations to the committee, I will need to take a few minutes to give an overview of the scope of aboriginal broadcasting in Canada today.
Firstly, since the mid-1980s the 13 NNBAP members have successfully grown to serve an estimated radio audience that exceeds 800,000 listeners each week. This audience also includes many non-aboriginal listeners. Seven of our members also produce television programming, which is primarily broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network--APTN. According to BBM numbers, APTN has an average weekly reach of nearly three million Canadians, with peaks of almost four million viewers. Collectively, NNBAP members provide a unique public service that is greatly needed. We inform, we entertain, and provide a vital link and invaluable lifeline, particularly for northern and remote communities, where mainstream newspapers, for example, still arrive a day or two late.
We also offer a unique style of journalism, music, entertainment, and cultural content. We serve as the story keepers: archivists in gathering and preserving historic documents, photos, audio recordings, film, and video that will be passed on to the next generation of aboriginal broadcasters. Our 13 societies also serve a critical role in preserving and promoting aboriginal languages. In a sense, we serve as the life raft to over 5,000 communities and urban centres where native languages can only be heard through radio or on television via APTN.
What we accomplish is really quite amazing: 40,000 hours of aboriginal-language radio a year and 100 hours of aboriginal-language television. I will note that some members of the aboriginal communication societies provide this service on a daily basis with extreme challenges that include the high cost of living in the north, high transportation costs, and remoteness.
Like many of our colleagues, we at NCI-FM have ventured to serve listeners in regions of Manitoba where many commercial broadcasters simply will not go. Our profits have given NCI the ability to grow and make decisions in our operations and in our programming futures. Moneys are allocated where they're needed to ensure that we can remain relevant to the people we serve. We know we're on the right track, as an independent research study commissioned by the Province of Manitoba in 2005 found that 67% of first nations people outside of Winnipeg listen to NCI-FM. Those numbers are unheard of in the commercial broadcasting world.
CBC must know that the aboriginal population is quickly growing in Manitoba. In Winnipeg alone, the population is expected to be 150,000 aboriginal people by 2015. We have witnessed the effects of population growth first-hand. Our NCI Jam talent show, which features 25 amateur singers with a professional back-up band, began with 175 people attending the first event in 1987. Today we sell out the Centennial Concert Hall, with 2,300 seats sold and 300 people outside wishing they had made it in. We also saw the inaugural Manito Ahbee Festival and pow-wow draw 25,000 people into the MTS Centre last November. This event brought a whopping $2.3 million into the Winnipeg economy in one weekend. Last year we created the Western Association of Aboriginal Broadcasters, also known as WAAB, with three of our sister networks, those being CFNR B.C., the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society in Alberta, and Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation in Saskatchewan. We have successfully worked together on several projects, which include a national aboriginal top 30. This is essential to the ever-growing aboriginal music industry. We also broadcast the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards. We broadcast them live across western Canada, with 225 transmitters all across the west.
We are at a point in our history where partnerships play an important role. In terms of APTN, partnerships have been established with CTV, CHUM, and Rogers Cable Incorporated. Last September NCI co-produced a radio game show with CBC Manitoba entitled Neech for the Top--yes, Neech for the Top. The new aboriginal word game show debuted at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and was an instant hit. CBC aired a segment of this show, and NCI gained two half-hour radio programs. Our Cree and Ojibway listeners were so enthusiastic about the language game show that we are currently in discussion with APTN and local producers to create a six-part TV series based on this concept.
The seeds for aboriginal programming can truly grow. An idea that became a radio segment on CBC in partnership with an aboriginal broadcaster became two half-hour radio programs and will now grow into six television shows.
I share these experiences to emphasize that over the last 20 years, in spite of funding cutbacks, our 13 societies have proven themselves to be both relevant and successful and have far exceeded the original intent or expectations of the northern native broadcast access program. It must be noted that compared to the $1 billion that CBC receives in funding, the 13 societies receive a combined funding of only $7.9 million to accomplish all of these objectives.
I would like to now submit several key recommendations.
First, Canada's Broadcasting Act must be updated to reflect aboriginal people.
I strongly agree with the results of a 2000 study of the national aboriginal broadcast program by Canadian Heritage that says that as aboriginal broadcasters we play a crucial role in our regions and in the communities we serve. We deserve to be recognized as an integral part of the Canadian broadcast system. I believe we provide a service similar to that of CBC, and that the broadcast industry underestimates the value of our contribution to both aboriginal and mainstream Canadian culture and society.
Currently we lack the statutory protection and recognition provided to the CBC within the Broadcasting Act. We are mentioned within the Broadcasting Act, but in a fashion that could be considered nothing more than a few words of common courtesy. We are not accorded the same protection as the CBC is granted. I believe we have proven to Canada, and certainly to our audience, that we offer a unique and specific public service that represents a segment of the Canadian population that is often marginalized or underserved.
The Broadcasting Act was last changed in 1991. It is time for the Broadcasting Act to receive a facelift that ultimately will be inclusive of Canada's fastest-growing population and the cultural diversity that is quickly becoming a reality in all regions of Canada.
Recommendation two is regional CBC round tables with aboriginal radio broadcasters.
Over the last year, we have worked on several special projects with CBC Radio Manitoba that have been successful. This has been a first step. What else can be achieved in working together with NNBAP members nationally? Why not share our expertise and come together to discuss possible partnerships? It's imperative that we form partnerships, as I predict that within the next two years our rural audience will outnumber CBC's here in Manitoba. Forming a relationship certainly speaks to the heart of CBC's mandate. The CBC network must not only accept such a role, but embrace it; the CBC must not only provide sporadic partnerships in order to claim to have met its mandate, but must act decisively and broadly deliver on its mandate of serving an inclusive audience.
Number three is about a national CBC program to bridge the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples final report was released in 1996 and noted that an influential program, Our Native Land, was a weekly CBC radio program that was cancelled in the 1980s when the CBC reinforced regional radio programming. The commission also noted that aboriginal programming has since occurred only on an ad hoc basis. In the royal commission's official recommendations, it was noted that the aboriginal voice will only be heard if it is included as a regular part of the Canadian media landscape.
In 1999 I had the opportunity to talk with the late Bernelda Wheeler, who gained national recognition as the host, producer, and investigative documentary journalist of Our Native Land. She is referred to as the first lady of native broadcasting. Bernelda was very humble about her work but acknowledged that she was part of a journalism movement that achieved a better understanding of who native people are in mainstream Canada. Today this program concept is greatly needed in Canada to bring Canadians together, to hear the issues, to question aboriginal issues, and to gain a better understanding of aboriginal issues as a whole. The spirit of her legacy should continue on CBC radio with a weekly one-hour radio program. I would also recommend that an aboriginal producer oversee the program or be given the opportunity to be mentored in the capacity as a producer.
Number four is about re-examining the NNBAP recommendation study.
In this last point I would like to call on Canadian Heritage to re-examine the results of a 2000 study that outlined an analysis of northern native broadcast access program recommendations and concerns in eight key areas. I believe there are several important components that must be reviewed, which include funding toward the archiving of materials. We must ensure that the last 20 years of radio and television programming will be available for future generations of people seeking materials like traditional legends and news archives, etc.
Also, the equipment study conducted by Alex MacGregor for NNBAP identified replacement and upgrading of equipment as being urgently needed, particularly for members north of 60.
In closing, if these suggestions are realized and acted upon, I am confident that CBC can meet the challenge of serving all Canadians, including aboriginal people.
Honourable members of the committee, I respectfully submit that CBC is not the only public broadcaster making a difference. Aboriginal broadcasters must be considered in your overview of national media in Canada. I have faith and confidence in this process and believe that there will be far-reaching outcomes based on your final decisions.
I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today and would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
